Crawley v Doncaster Rovers: Time for Rovers to put foot on the gas

Darren Ferguson’s table-toppers have been in excellent form most of the season, but they endured a five-match winless streak last month.

That finally came to an end on Tuesday night at Cambridge United as goals from Tommy Rowe, Mathieu Baudry and John Marquis sealed a 3-2 win.

Even then, Rovers suffered a nervous finale as United pulled two goals back from 3-0 down via George Maris and Luke Berry.

But victory left Doncaster 12 points ahead of fourth-placed Portsmouth and goalkeeper Ian Lawlor admits it was a relief.

“It was massive to get the win against Cambridge, we had a tough couple of weeks before that game where we didn’t pick up as many points as we would have liked,” said the former Manchester City stopper.

“Every team is fighting to try and go above us so we have to make sure we keep up the consistency which we’ve shown all season.

“We’ve come out the other side of a sticky spell and haven’t lost too much ground.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we’re building something here and it’s important that we take small steps.

“We’re working hard and the winning mentality within the team is helping us massively,” added the 22-year-old Irishman.

Doncaster have 12 games remaining to clinch promotion and then set their sights on the League Two title.

Rovers chief Ferguson, though, believes another 24 points – two points per game – will see Doncaster promoted.

“We need to put our foot on the gas at this stage of the season,” said Ferguson. “We’re back to winning ways and that’s the most important thing.”