Grant McCann emphatically reiterated that the League Two title is his primary goal as Doncaster swept past Carlisle.
Rovers returned to winning ways with a 3-0 triumph to keep their automatic promotion hopes in their own hands.
Manager McCann has never given up on his pre-season target of his side lifting the title this term and their chances remain alive, with leaders Walsall visiting the Eco-Power Stadium in midweek.
Goals from Owen Bailey, Jordan Gibson and Harry Clifton saw Rovers comfortably sweep past their struggling visitors and cut the gap to top spot down to five points.
McCann said: “Our focus hasn’t shifted from the league title. Our eyes are firmly on it.
“I’m not worried about what people may think or if they’re asking why I’m saying that. That’s what we’re doing, that’s why we’re here.
“How are we going to do that? It’s going to be difficult but we’ll take it game by game. We’ve got a tough game against Walsall on Tuesday but we’ll prepare and focus all our energy and everything we have properly on that game.
“I think in any season you’re going to go through blips where you haven’t won. It’s not easy this division – every game is so difficult.
“You do think you need a win. For us to get this one so convincingly was really pleasing, certainly against a Carlisle team with a new lease of life since Mark Hughes came in. It was a tough game and a good win.”
Carlisle manager Hughes says his side simply cannot afford any repeat of their performance as they look for a way out of the relegation zone.
The Cumbrians dropped to the foot of the table with the defeat and ended the positive run of form that had been mounted since Hughes’ arrival.
“We weren’t good enough,” Hughes said. “We looked lacking in a lot of the elements you need to be good at to win football matches.
“I just felt a lot of the issues around us during the season came to the fore again, and I haven’t seen that in recent weeks.
“The last two performances have been really good and we can’t allow ourselves to go so far away from that level, which is what we did today.
“It’s difficult to take. We talk at length about what we’re going to do and how we’re going about the game but none of that came together.
“We started quite brightly and had a couple of good opportunities but it’s evident that we need the first goal because when we go behind, it’s a lot more difficult for us to keep coming back. The lads struggled with that.”
