DONCASTER Rovers veteran striker Robbie Blake is the club’s joker in the pack.
Blake might not have seen as much of the action as he would have liked since joining Rovers in the summer, but he has still managed to keep his own spirits up and those of his team-mates.
“It’s nice to have a bit of fun and it takes your mind off worrying about the game,” he told The Star. “Obviously when you are training or playing you have to be serious, but why not have a laugh and a joke at other times?”
Blake scored his first goal for the club in the recent FA Cup second round game at Oldham.
“It was nice to get off the mark but it was a disappointing result. We started off really well and probably should have put the game to bed in the first 30 minutes.
“But Boundary Park is never an easy place to go and Oldham aren’t a bad team and they’ve got some good players. It’s probably going to be another hard game when we go there in the league on Boxing Day.”
Before then, however, Rovers have back-to-back home games against Coventry City and MK Dons.
“We’ve got a tough run-in until the end of the year but they are all tough games,” he said. “But other teams will be saying the same about us.
“We’ve just got to try and stay in the top two and if we can do that then we’ve got no problems.
“Our home record over the season isn’t as good as our away form but we’ve won our last two home games and hopefully we can pick up another six points in our next two games.
“I think that we can turn our home form around between now and the end of the season; we’ve got the players to do it. Whereas we’ve been solid away from home all season we just haven’t clicked in a few home games and we’ve paid the price.
“I don’t know why that should be, given our away form, but for whatever reason results just haven’t gone our way.
“So it’s not all doom and gloom. It probably just looks that way because our away record is that good.
Blake admits that there is more pressure on Rovers now they are joint top with Tranmere, but argues that is not necessarily a bad thing.
“Why not thrive on the pressure?” he questioned. “That’s when players show their mettle.”
He added: “We’ve got experienced players at the club who have been in that situation before. We’ve got the right blend of youth and experience in the squad. While I don’t want to tempt fate, I can’t see us slipping up in terms of us slipping down the league. I definitely think we’ll stay in the mix.”