Gary McSheffrey was downbeat after a six-goal thriller against Shrewsbury with Doncaster still set to drop into League Two.

Rovers produced a great comeback from three goals down but they are six points off 20th-placed Gillingham with two games to go – with a -17 worse goal difference.

On the reality of survival, McSheffrey said: “We need a big difference in goals and we need teams to lose.

“In terms of today’s game, it was a poor first half. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“It looked like we were off the pace and a bit leggy. They outran us and they were on the front foot more.

“We had some words at half-time, tweaked it a bit tactically, made a substitution and we came out and played well. We had a good half of football and scored three goals.”

Asked about who is to blame for Doncaster’s situation, McSheffrey added: “Everybody has to shoulder the responsibility. Everybody will have to. Myself, players, everybody at the club.

“We’ve had to play a lot of youngsters at times to fill numbers and to fill the bench. The injuries have been massive.

“You see how well we can play in the last four games when you get a couple of key players back on the pitch. It’s an accumulation of things but ultimately, as well, we’ve not been good enough.”

Daniel Udoh scored his 16th goal of the season after 19 minutes before Ryan Bowman doubled the lead with a 34th-minute header and Shaun Whalley added a third before the interval.

Mipo Odubeko pulled one back early in the second-half and Reo Griffiths set up a grandstand finish in the 77th minute before Kyle Knoyle equalised in added time to snatch the Reds a point.

Shrews boss Steve Cotterill was fuming after seeing his players throw away their three-goal lead.

Asked about whether he can take positives from the game, he said: “It’s hard at the moment to be fair after being three-nil up.

“I said to the boys ‘Do you realise why I was agitated at half-time? Now you understand it.’ I spoke calmly but I was agitated.

“It’s just a huge disappointment because we’ve let go of two points and we’ve only ended up picking up a point when we’ve been three goals up. There’s obviously a learning curve in that for the boys.

“I wanted to keep a clean sheet. It was one of the first things I put on the board.

“Even if you don’t add to the tally you’ve got the three points. But there was that sloppiness in us at times. The final goal sums it up really.

“We try and keep the ball in play. We haven’t got to try and keep the ball in play. Kick it in the crowd. The game’s done!”