Salford boss Karl Robinson was heartened by the battling qualities his play-off chasing side showed as they came back to draw 1-1 with League Two automatic-promotion hopefuls Doncaster.
Having had a goal ruled out for a foul five minutes earlier, Rovers raced into a deserved lead through Rob Street’s fiercely struck finish, before Luke Garbutt fired a low free-kick through Teddy Sharman-Lowe to restore parity.
Salford had a goal of their own chalked off on the stroke of half-time when it was adjudged that Sharman-Lowe had been pushed attempting to claim a corner before Ossama Ashley headed home from close range.
Both sides missed opportunities to win the game on the counter in an end-to-end second half, but with both goalkeepers in fine form, the contest ended level.
Robinson, whose side are four points off the play-off spots, said: “I am really proud of the players, and I thought they gave me everything. I can’t ask for much more.
“I am really pleased with the players’ performance and output. We have a quick turnaround right now and we have a massive game ahead. If we win that, we will be massively in this (play-off race).
“There are lesser teams than ours that have clawed back massive gaps and made the play-offs. It’s a credit to this team that we are even near it.
“Their goal is offside by the way, but we responded unbelievably well, and I thought that we were the better team.
“We are under no illusions about how hard it is going to be in the next few games. We have to control those matches as they are going to be right after us and full of energy, we need to control the game and control our emotions.”
Doncaster boss Grant McCann enjoyed the second half, but bemoaned his side’s wastefulness in front of goal as Rovers missed a golden opportunity to move into the automatic-promotion places with a win.
Rovers are level on points with third-placed Walsall.
He said: “I thought it was a good advert for the league, but we are not about adverts at the minute, we are trying to win football games.
“I’m disappointed with the way we conceded. The ball goes through the wall and through Teddy Sharman-Lowe.
“I felt we started the game very strongly, and for 30 minutes we were outstanding, but we conceded, and it went away from us a little bit, and they got back into the game.
“We readjusted at half-time, and it turned into a bit of a basketball game. I enjoy games like that when my team scores.
“We just picked the wrong ball and made the wrong decisions at the top end of the pitch, passing when we should shoot, crossing high when we should cross low.
“All those little moments just did not go our way and we have to improve on that.”
