Doncaster Rovers shift focus to 'exciting' FA Cup tie with Crystal Palace after League Two blip at Chesterfield

For just four nights before their mouthwatering FA Cup fourth-round tie with the Premier League side, the competition’s lowest-ranked team suffered a reality check in the bread and butter of the League Two promotion chase.

Rovers were beaten 5-2 by Chesterfield, a margin of victory that does not fully reflect the game but does nonetheless suggest Doncaster will be glad to see the back of the Spireites who beat them 3-0 in their own back yard back in September.

There was no major harm done in their quest to get out of League Two, save for the second-place South Yorkshire side missing the chance to cut the gap on leaders Walsall from seven to four points.

But it was a sobering night, and a reminder that Rovers need to be sharp and focused in every game from now until the end of the season if they are to clinch a top-three spot and automatic promotion, and not fall back into the play-offs and ignite the possibility of another meeting with a Chesterfield side who sit just underneath the top seven and have clearly got their near-neighbours’ number this season.

Manager Grant McCann and striker Joe Ironside said the game was ‘lost in both boxes’ where Chesterfield were more clinical, converting five of their seven attempts on goal.

But those Palace scouts will have noted, too, that Dylan Duffy’s first goal and Michael Olakigbe’s fourth that settled the contest came from penetrative runs and balls into Doncaster’s inside right channel.

No one gets a full picture from one 90-minute performance, and there is enough evidence going back to last February that Doncaster are among the strongest teams in League Two.

"I'm hoping this (result) will be a good thing for us, I really am,” said McCann. “It tells us if you don't do the basics in football - run, tackle, stay with runners, defend set-plays - then you can get beat. All in all it's a good learning curve for us tonight. It's one we need to digest, look at and learn from very, very quickly.

“They're young players and they're going to make mistakes at times. There was mistakes all over the pitch.

"You are always going to lose games. But there's a way to lose games and what I liked about my team tonight was we kept going and kept trying to create opportunities. We didn't go down with a whimper.”

Certainly, Doncaster’s players could not be accused of taking their eye off the ball with the visit of a Premier League side in the offing.

Since knocking out Hull City on penalties in the third round and drawing Crystal Palace later that day, Rovers had won four of four in League Two prior to making the short journey down the M1 to Chesterfield. No thoughts have strayed to Monday night. McCann would never allow it.

"Nobody's even spoken about that to be honest,” he said. “This is our bread and butter, the league. The FA Cup is what it is.

“We know what we need to do in the division to be where we need to be and we didn't do that tonight."

Even when addressing putting mistakes right for the next game, that next game in McCann’s mind Grimsby in League Two next Saturday - “nothing better than a local derby” - not the visit of Palace.

“The beauty of football is that games come thick and fast and we've got to respond now in the league and use this as a motivation.”

No need to panic, then, for Rovers, so long as the lessons that McCann highlighted are learned.

One that particularly rankled for the visitors was Chesterfield’s second goal. As brave as Spireites defender Tom Naylor was to get his head on Ryheem Sheckleford’s cross and nearly clatter into the post for his efforts, the fact Bim Pepple was alone to steer the knockdown home from two yards out jarred for manager and players alike.

“The second goal we’ve got to be better, we pride ourselves on set plays,” said Joe Ironside, who was in an almost identical position in second-half stoppage time to stoop to head home a consolation before Chesterfield went up the other end and scored a fifth through Ollie Banks.

“We work really hard on them on the training pitch so that’s a hard one to take. But this game has been and gone now, we’ve got to use it as a learning curve.”

Which allows Rovers to momentarily take their minds off the pursuit of promotion and enjoy the exposure and free hit that is Monday’s night’s FA Cup tie with Palace.

“Definitely it’s exciting,” said Ironside. “It’s what the FA Cup is about. We’ll look forward to that and move the focus back to the league after that.

“It’s a boost for the city of Doncaster, as well as the club. Hopefully we pack out the stadium, the fans come out in force and we can give a good account of ourselves.”