Garner scored 14 league goals in the 1987–88 season, when they qualified for the recently introduced playoffs, but defeat in the semi-finals denied them promotion. They reached the playoff final a year later and looked to have secured First Division football after beating Crystal Palace, but were heavily beaten by Palace in the return leg and missed out on promotion again. In 1990, Rovers suffered a third successive playoff defeat. Garner found the net 20 times in the league that season, in a successful partnership up front with Howard Gayle.