Grant McCann is delighted to see Doncaster climbing the Sky Bet League Two standings but he is refusing to get caught up in talk of tables at this stage of the season.
After taking eight attempts to pick up their first league win of the campaign, Rovers now have three victories from their last four matches after seeing off in-form Crawley 2-0 at the Eco-Power Stadium.
A Mo Faal strike and a Joe Ironside penalty saw Doncaster deservedly end Crawley’s winning run at five matches.
The performance and result was much more like what McCann expected from his team and he has full faith in his squad’s ability to join the promotion race.
“There’s 35 games left and it’s going to chop and change a lot between now and the end of the season,” McCann said.
“We’re quite calm in terms of where we are. We want to be better obviously, but we’re calm and know we’ll start improving and get better all the time.
“Over a number of weeks now, we’ve seen that. We stepped off it at the weekend, but we’ve regained it tonight.
“In a lot of aspects of what we want to be and what we’re about, it was the best performance of the season.
“It reminded me a bit of the game at Hull in the Carabao Cup when we tried to jump on top of them.
“I was pleased with the whole team, including the lads who came on later because they made a real impact. We thoroughly deserved to win.”
Crawley manager Scott Lindsey felt his side lacked their usual creative streak as they saw their winning run ended.
“We said at half-time we felt our possession was good but we didn’t create enough,” he said. “We had players on the pitch with goals in them and creativity too, but we didn’t see enough of that.
“We started reasonably well and felt we dominated and controlled the first 25 minutes, but we gave away a poor goal and it was a fine example of goals changing games.
“Doncaster are a side in a false position and it was a tough game.”
Lindsey felt referee Martin Woods was wrong to award Doncaster a penalty as Mo Faal tumbled with Will Wright in the box.
“As the ball comes in, Will is pushed over and as he falls, he takes the player with him,” he said. “The referee gives the penalty, but what about the push on Will?
“It’s just crazy that it’s a penalty to me. It’s a foul the other way and it’s a killer for us because we have an uphill challenge against a side who keep the ball really well.”
Man United could be without Toone until new year, says Skinner
Marc Skinner revealed that Manchester United could be without midfielder Ella Toone until the new year after she picked up a calf injury in training.
Toone has featured in five games in the Women's Super League this season, but is yet to register a goal or an assist so far this term.
The 25-year-old has missed United's last two games and was not selected in Sarina Wiegman's England squad for their upcoming friendlies against the United States and Switzerland.
She had previously appeared in a staggering 96 straight matches before missing United's WSL showdown with Leicester City last weekend.
But ahead of the Red Devils' meeting with league leaders Chelsea on Sunday, Skinner confirmed they would be without Toone for not only that game, but for the foreseeable future.
"We have three games [after the international break and before Christmas]. There's always the hope, but I think you balance and you go, 'right, if we can get her back, we get her back'," Skinner said.
"But we're just not going to rush her in this moment because it's a calf injury, it's your running mechanism. If we injure the running mechanism, it takes longer.
"So ideally we'd like her back for those games afterwards.
"The projection is she misses this game [Chelsea], she misses the international window, probably misses the first game after that, and then we'll see from there.
"But because it is such a short block of only three games, we'll assess whether it's worth that or actually resetting to come back after Christmas."
Al-Nassr 1-2 Al-Qadsiah: Aubameyang winner ends hosts' unbeaten run
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hit the winner as Al-Qadsiah inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League on Friday to end their 21-match unbeaten run.
Cristiano Ronaldo's seventh league goal of the season put Al-Nassr ahead, but Al-Qadsiah replied swiftly through Julian Quinones before Aubameyang struck the decisive blow.
The hosts drew first blood in the 32nd minute when Ronaldo slotted home after Al-Qadsiah goalkeeper Koen Casteels had spilled a routine catch from Talisca's cross.
However, Al-Nassr's joy was short-lived when Quinones brought down Turki Al Ammar's delivery five minutes later, with the Mexcio winger firing past Bento to level the scores.
Quinones also played a part in the winning goal after brilliantly turning the ball back across goal from Nahitan Nandez's search pass to tee up a simple finish for Aubameyang.
The result sees Al-Qadsiah move level on 22 points with third-placed Al-Nassr, with Al-Shabab also level with them.
Stefano Pioli's Al-Nassr are six points adrift of defending champions and leaders Al-Hilal, who also have a game in hand.
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