Doncaster Rovers' recent resilience adds to their League Two play-off armoury

Grant McCann's side ended the regular season unbeaten in 12 games – winning the middle 10 – form no side in the Premier, Football or National Leagues can rival.

It makes them strong favourites to see off Crewe Alexandra – one of the sides they beat in that remarkable sequence – in next week's two-legged play-off.

If anything, you might worry they had things too easy but the last two wins of the run – against Barrow and Colchester United were the first where they had to come from behind. And the final-day draw at Gillingham was an even bigger test.

As it transpired, Barrow's end-of-season implosion meant even a defeat would have seen Doncaster finish in the top seven but they did not know that when Gillingham pulled a two-goal deficit back to 2-2 with two strikes in five minutes on the back of a red card for Rovers' goalkeeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala – on loan from Hull City.

And going into the play-offs on the back of a long unbeaten run is much better than with a defeat.

"It's different things we can use as part of our learning," said manager McCann. "We've come back in two games and at Gilingham we had to stand firm when a team came back at us. Hopefully this will hold us in good stead against Crewe."

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In working their way up from 22nd in the table at the start of February to fifth at the end of April, Doncaster have built a resilience which makes them more able to deal with setbacks.

Lo-Tutala will be suspended at Gresty Road on Monday but midfielder Harrison Biggins is expected back after injury denied him the chance to build on back-to-back goals at Priestfield.

"Biggo's been a big player in this run," said McCann. "He's scored important goals and plays the position really well but we've got good players in Tommy Rowe, George Broadbent and Zain Westbrooke.

"Ben Close wasn't available (at Gillingham) but we feel like we've got good midfield players. Any two or three can play in our team."