Doncaster Rovers v Coventry City: Survival is name of the game at Keepmoat

The Crucible Theatre in nearby Sheffield may be staging the World Snooker Championship, but Rovers need a couple of snookers of their own in a footballing sense to somehow haul themselves away from League One trapdoor.

Rovers’ form in their last four matches has been good, if not necessarily their points haul, but it now must marry up with victories in their final three games, starting in today’s game with Coventry.

If Doncaster win and other results go for them, they could be two points adrift of safety come 5pm tonight.

But on the flip side of the coin, if they lose and Shrewsbury win at Gillingham and Fleetwood win their Fylde derby with visiting Blackpool, then Rovers will be relegated for the second time in three seasons.

Desperate he may be that it will not come to that, but manager Darren Ferguson is the first to acknowledge that relegation would have ramifications on several levels, including financial.

He said: “There will be salary cuts (if Rovers are relegated) and everyone is aware of what the ramifications will be.

“It’s simply the way it should be done.

“If you go up a league then you get an increase and if you get relegated it goes down.

“Everyone is fully aware of their responsibilities.

“We have managed to keep ourselves alive and the message to the players is ‘focus on the game in front of you, do your job and hopefully take it to the next game’.”