Barrow v Doncaster Rovers: Last season's finish an inspiration to current Rovers players

A third League Two win on the trot, at Barrow on Wednesday, is a long way from the 10 straight victories which catapulted a Rovers side in the bottom three in February into the play-offs, but even so it would be their longest winning run since.

Memories of that impressive sequence are still burnt on the minds of those who went through it.

Darren Moore's Port Vale had a blockbuster run in September/October and Walsall were on one of their own until running into an in-form Bradford City on Saturday. Now Doncaster want to do something similar.

"We need to go on a run, definitely," said Clifton, whose goal was enough to beat Harrogate Town on Saturday. "We haven't quite done that.

"It's been two steps forward and one step back. I think that's why aren't quite where we want to be, pulling away from the pack.

"Hopefully we can take a lot of confidence from where we are at the minute and carry on a run.

"We're all excited going into the back end of the season. Everyone's fresh and fit and we've got a lot of opitons."

Fellow summer signing Sbarra says last season was an inspiration, but the lesson of it was not to get too caught up in what lies ahead.

"We know we can do better, we know we've not been as consistent as we can be, but we know we've got the quality in the dressing room to go on a run like that and maybe even better," he said.

"I know the end result wasn't achieved (losing on penalties in the play-off semi-final) but whatever you go through, you can learn from it. Obviously I wasn't here but I think the fact they went on that winning run, I think we know we can do it again, if not go better.

"It's just about taking it game by game, which is what they said they did last year."

Clifton adds that: "For those of us coming in, I already feel now that we can go on that run and why can't I be a part of this.

"There's a lot of confidence to take from that.

"We're at that stage of the season now... I know three points are massive whether it's the start of the season or not but what matters is the three points and the performance comes second.

"The performance isn't always going to happen, especially in League Two football."

The next-game-as-it-comes mindset is led by manager Grant McCann, who knows that even if his side achieve their promotion goal, it will not be straight-forward.

"We're just trying to win every game now and put ourselves in the best position," he said.

"There's going to be so many ups and downs, twists and turns, from now until the end of the season.

"Only us and Bradford in the top seven won on Saturday so it just goes to show you the league can be topsy-turvy from now until the end of April.

"We just want to try and be consistent as best we can."​​​​​​​