The Royals slipped to a defeat at the Eco-Power Stadium as Rovers captain Owen Bailey netted his 16th goal of the season in the second half.

It left Richardson’s side five points off the final play-off berth with just nine left to play for and saw the manager pledge that his side will be in a much healthier position in a year’s time.

“Mathematically, it’s still possible but I’ve learned a lot in the 20-odd games since coming in when we were looking over our shoulder and struggling a bit,” he said.

“It’s my job now to figure out how we get better and, this time next season, I know we will be in a lot better shape.

“I’m disappointed with the result. Doncaster probably handled the conditions better than we did.

“It took us a while to get into the game and our flair players fell short in terms of threatening their goal, which was the case in our last game as well. There was nothing in the game really but we have to be better at the top end of the pitch.”

Despite the win over Reading, Doncaster manager Grant McCann cut a frustrated figure in the aftermath as he admitted feeling bitterly disappointed a late play-off charge was not to be for his team.

Consecutive defeats over the Easter weekend ended any faint hopes that ambitious McCann had for his team to gatecrash the race for the top six.

And he could not hide that lingering disappointment – even after the win over Reading saw Rovers take a massive stride towards ensuring their League One status for next season.

“It’s been a real disappointing period up to the game today,” McCann said. “The last couple of games were really disappointing.

“Any slim hope or opportunity we had for that top six we let go over the Easter weekend. People might be looking and thinking, ‘what’s he on about?’.

“But I’ve been here so many times. We’ve done it here over the last two seasons. If we had have picked up six points from two games that I fancied us to win, we’d be sitting seven or eight points off the play-offs with four games to go. You just never know.

“I said to the players that I’ve never been so disappointed in all my managerial career leading into this game.

“There was a lot of choice words said on Tuesday but what they did today was show that real togetherness that I know they have, but need to show more often.

“I just feel we’ve not had that full belief that we could do it.”