Gillingham v Doncaster Rovers: Ferguson prepares for tough close to the campaign

Doncaster Rovers' boss, Darren Ferguson. Picture: Bruce Rollinson

Doncaster will arrive at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium full of confidence following two good results against Blackpool and Bradford.

The Gills were thrashed 4-0 last time out against Southend and Ferguson expects a reaction from a team that has blown hot and cold this season.

He said: “Gillingham suffered a heavy defeat last time out at Southend and they’ll be hurting after it, they took a lot of fans there and will want to put things right.

“We expect a reaction from them and we have to make sure we are ready.

“Steve Lovell took them on and they went on a hell of a run and were maybe looking at creeping into the play-offs at one point, but they’ve slipped away a little bit now and lost the last three games.”

The two teams are level on points and sit in 14th and 15th position with Doncaster just ahead on goal difference. Seven points seperate them and the relegation zone so both teams will be keen not to slip any closer to the drop.

“The good thing for me is that I have 21 players training, plus Tom Anderson coming back, so I have a lot of bodies there which I need. I haven’t been able to say that much this season, but I have it at such a crucial stage,” added Ferguson.

“Anderson will start training with the group again soon and he will come in to contention for the game against Milton Keynes next week too, if he comes through everything.”

Rovers had their last game called off becasue of the weather and now have two games in hand, They have a busy schedule to close the year and following a week’s break after today’s game, they will play twice a week until the end of the season.

“They’re a good side with some obvious threats and it’s a tough place to go,” said Ferguson. “But one thing we’ve got at the moment is that we seem to be playing quite well, we’re looking fairly solid and the players are playing with confidence.

“We’re only focusing on Saturday because then we have a gap of a week until the Milton Keynes game, so we need to make sure we keep the players as fresh as we can. We’ve tried to do that this week and we will try to do the same next week as well.”