DONCASTER coach Richard Horne is seeking some tough tests as he plots a play-off bid.
The South Yorkshire side hasn’t gone beyond the regular season since 2023, when they won promotion from the old League One.
That was followed by successive eighth-place finishes in the previous form of the Championship, when the top six made the play-off cut.
Now in the merged second tier, it’s the top ten, meaning Doncaster are firmly on course.
Horne wants to finish as high as possible, and after his side won 56-0 at Swinton before Friday’s 22-10 victory at home to Batley, there are six further league fixtures.
The sequence starts at home to Oldham on Sunday, and after a visit from struggling North Wales, there are challenges away to Barrow, at home to Midlands and Sheffield and at Goole.
That suits Horne, who believes there is plenty of fine-tuning still required and that his side need to find out where they are compared to the kind of teams they might face in a play-off tie.
“We put 56 points on Swinton recently, which was obviously pleasing, but there were parts of our performance which were disappointing,” he said.
“We made too many errors and conceded too many penalties, and against one of the top sides, that might well have led to the result going a very different way.
“We know we have quality players and real strike in this side, but we aren’t always clicking as a group, we are forcing a few too many passes, and there are things we are working on.
“Against the top sides, we need to be better, and a series of games which will stretch us is good, because we want to build strength and resilience.”