Gary McSheffrey delighted by Doncaster Rovers's bouncebackability

Rovers lost 4-0 at Portsmouth on Saturday but responded with a 1-0 win over Lincoln City which the manager admitted was not pretty, but the three points lifted them off the bottom of League One.

It continued the pattern of the season.

When Doncaster lost 6-0 at home to Rotherham United in the Football League Trophy in September, they ran title-chasing Wigan Athletic close in the next game, taking the lead but losing 2-1. They beat Milton Keynes Dons days after losing 6-0 at Ipswich Town, followed up a 4-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic with a point at Crewe Alexandra, and most impressively of all won at Sunderland on the back of a 5-0 hammering at home to Rotherham.

“I said to them I want a response, the fans want a response, and after the two drubbings they’d bounced back the next games, so could they do it again,” said McSheffrey of how he approached the match at Lincoln. “It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.”

McSheffrey switched to a back three at Sincil Bank and although he felt his team could have been better with their ball, he was delighted at the way they battened down the hatches.

“I just said we needed to find a way to stop leaking goals,” said McSheffrey. “We tweaked the shape, sat in a bit of a medium to low block and soaked it up.

“We defended well for large periods. We need to be a lot better on the ball when we win it back. We could have hurt them quite a few times first half if we had a bit more composure and quality in our pass, that first pass winning the ball back but we were sloppy and rushing things.

“But as far as the gameplan went, it worked.”

Six points from safety but having played more games than any team in the division, Doncaster host Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.