Consistency key for Ferguson ahead of Kenilworth Road trip.
Darren Ferguson is hoping that his side can replicate the same levels of performance when Doncaster travel to highly fancied Luton Town on Saturday.
Rovers’ last away outing saw them romp to a 5-1 win over Morecambe but couldn’t match those levels in a 2-0 home win over Newport which saw Ferguson’s troops move in to second place in the league table.
“In most games we’ve played this season, we’ve scored goals and even on Saturday when I didn’t think we were at our most fluent, watching it back we could have easily scored six,” said the Scot.
“As long as we continue that, looking a threat, having good quality in the last third of the pitch and making right decisions then I think we will score goals and that’s something that has really pleased me.
“I’m not looking for anything different to what we’ve had. I’m looking for consistency; can we improve as a team and keep growing?
“I want consistency and a good level of performance and the same mentality that we’ve had. We’ve had hard games up to now and just because you’re expected to do something doesn’t mean you necessarily will.
“We’ll approach the game the same, first and foremost, getting a good level of performance from the team and if we do that then I feel we’ll give anyone in this league a game.”
Rovers have won two and lost two of their four away games to date and are the division’s top scorers; a tag Ferguson relishes ahead of a trip to face the Hatters who will be up there at the season end he reckons.
“I’m as satisfied when we get a clean sheet (as well as being the division’s top scorers) but certainly we look a threat going forward,” he admitted.
“I think we’re in a good place, we’re playing well with improvement in us. At times and parts of games we’ve played very, very well so I think we’ve just got to keep improving. The word I say to the players is be ‘consistent’ – if we get consistency to our mentality where we’re at at the moment then we look a decent team.
“We’re going in to a week where we also play Carlisle and Portsmouth, so there’s three teams that’ll be there or thereabouts but we’ll concentrate on ourselves. We could go to Luton and put in a fantastic performance and get beat, you never know!
“I think they’re a good team, a good footballing team. They’ve played a similar formation to ourselves with a diamond midfield. They’ve got many good attributes to their game, in particular the tempo and energy at home with which they play, especially in the early parts of games.
“They’ll try and press and they’ve got a real threat in different areas of the pitch so it will be a difficult game but one I’m looking forward to. It’s a good football club and a good atmosphere at that ground. I’m sure there’ll be a good crowd, we’ll take a few I’d imagine and it’s a game I’m looking forward to, I’m sure it will be a good football match.
“They’ve got a new manager, a young manager and have started the season well, even though they’ve lost the last couple but I fully expect Luton to be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.”