Doncaster Rovers v Bristol Rovers: Braver approach on ball can help build on Rovers' obvious progression

Ferguson has seen Rovers snatch impressive draws in their last two outings against two top-four teams in Shrewsbury Town and Scunthorpe United.

But Rovers had to battle back from 2-0 down against the Shrews, while it needed a stoppage-time goal from Alfie Beestin to rescue a 1-1 draw at Glanford Park on Tuesday night. “I wasn’t happy with the performance (at Scunthorpe)” said Ferguson. “We weren’t brave enough on the ball.

“Credit to my players we have shown a good resolve, but we can’t get away from the fact that the players have to understand we got away with it on Tuesday.

“It evens itself out in a season, we have played games where we clearly should have won and haven’t.”

When Doncaster lost at Oxford United on December, they were just three points off relegation, 23 points from 21 games.

But, ahead of today’s visit of Bristol Rovers, Doncaster are up to 11th, having picked up 14 points in eight games.

“We need a win on Saturday, it has been a brilliant run so far and we want to continue that,” said Ferguson.

“Saturday is not a must win game but it would be nice to round the month off with three points. If you have watched us through the course of the season there has been a gradual progression in the side.

“If we win on Saturday that would take us to 40 points after 30 games, and given where we were before Christmas you would have taken that and there’s 16 games still to go.”