George Miller shows bottle as Doncaster Rovers end losing League Two run with 4-1 win over Crawley Town

His side had surrendered a 1-0 lead in the blink of an eye in the first half but now they had a chance to retake the lead after referee Carl Boyeson spotted a handball on Kyle Knoyle's deep cross.

Adam Clayton wanted to take it, but the captain was eventually persuaded to hand it over to centre-forward Miller. After that, he had to score, in front of the Black Bank.

The kick squeezed just beyond the left hand of the diving Corey Addai.

The 59th-minute strike did not appear to do anything to settle Doncaster nerves – when your manager speaks openly about a fear of failure, having something to lose against opponents struggling at the wrong end of the table as Crawley Town is not quite the gift it should be. Especially when you are on a run of three straight League Two defeats.

When Caleb Chukwuemeka failed to get a touch on a left-wing cross, goalscorer James Tilley ought to have put it in, but miskicked. So Miler's goal a minute later was huge too, emphatically thumping the ball in when Kieran Agard's deflected shot fell into his path.

Kyle Hurst would go on to score an excellent goal to put the cap on a 4-1 victory, but it was Miller's bottle in the moment that matters which secured it.

Doncaster had worked hard to get themselves a first-half lead, which made it so infuriating they handed it back within a minute.

Despite their lowly league position, Crawley started more confidently, Cypriot left-back Nick Tsaroulla causing early Rovers problems. But the hosts withstood them, and began to grow into the game around the quarter-hour mark.

James Maxwell's ball over the top was just beyond Miller but with Doncaster mirroring Crawley's 4-4-2, the centre-forward had the freedom to run down the inside-left channel in particular.

It was Miller who played the ball into Hurst – like Luke Molyneux, far from chained to his wing – but his touch gave him a tighter angle to shoot from and 16 minutes in, Addai produced the game's first noteworthy save.

Molyneux produced a weak shot when Ro-Shaun Williams strode out of defence with the ball and Miller shot wide from close in after a good Molyneux ball to Hurst, who exchanged passes with Knoyle before crossing.

With Jack Powell clumsily clearing a Knoyle cross as Miller bore down on him and Clayton shooting wide from the best part of 35 yards, the pressure was building.

Ironically, the goal came on the back of a couple of scares at the opposite end, Chukwuemeka shooting wide as Joseph Olowu threw himself in front of it, then Tilley following Clayton's lead in letting fly from distance.

More chances fell to centre-back Olowu than anyone, and it was he who opened the scoring in the 41st minute.

When Molyneux and Ben Close – starting twice in a week after no appearance since November – had got Rovers out of a tight spot on the right, Olowu got good height on his leap at the corner won by the winger, but was unable to time his jump well enough to make the most of his header.

His header when Clayton played a ball in after 27 minutes was miles wide, and he got under one from a Knoyle cross.

But when Close played a deep ball in from the right, Olowu ignored Miller's attempts to get to it and headed in at the near post.

In no time at all, though, the advantage had been surrendered. Tilley linked well with Ashley Nadesan, played a good one-two with Tom Nicholls and too easily made the space to stab in an equaliser.

Rovers were sent out early for the second half in conditions nippy enough for Kevin Betsy to put a touchline jacket over his T-shirt for the second half, but it was the visitors who again started better, Tilley forcing a save after Knoyle was caught under a cross aimed at Chukwuemeka.

The penalty, though, gave Doncaster their chance and Miller's second extinguished Crawley's.

A wonderful deep ball from substitute Lee Tomlin gave Miller a hat-trick chance but, running onto it, he headed over. Tomlin then trickled a shot wide after battling to win a second ball. He would also lob onto the roof of the net in stoppage time.

By then, though, the game was going through the motions thanks to Hurst's 83rd-minute goal.The winger burst down the middle before beating the goalkeeper for a victory not as straight-forward as the scoreline might suggest but no less welcome for it.

Doncaster Rovers: Mitchell; Knoyle, Williams, Olowu, Maxwell; Molyneux (Woltman 86), Clayton, Close (Biggins 75), Hurst (Seaman 86); Agard (Tomlin 73), Miller.

Unused substitutes: Jones, Long, Faulkner.

Crawley Town: Addai; Fellows, Ransom (Francillette 84), Craig, Tsaroulla; Tilley (Oteh 84), Hessenthaler (Wells 84), Powell, Chukwuemeka (Telford 67); Nadesan, Nicholls.

Unused substitutes: Johnson, Khaleel, Greensall.

Referee: C Boyeson (East Yorkshire).