Grant McCann was furious with his side’s performance following Doncaster Rovers’ 2-0 defeat to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.
The visitors were firmly second best at Plough Lane, beaten by Ali Al Hamadi goals in each half, in a contest which saw the Dons go down to nine men. Despite having a lion’s share of the possession, ending on 61%, Doncaster could not test goalkeeper Alex Bass, with a Kyle Hurst shot in the 67th minute being the only shot on target.
It was a bad result for McCann’s side, slumping to 19th in the table, and having pre-season relegation candidates such as Colchester United and Harrogate Town overtake them.
Speaking to club media, the 43-year-old was angry at the performance of his Doncaster Rovers squad. He said: “It wasn’t good enough. Nowhere near where we’ve been. We deservedly got beat. There was no energy, no threat and no aggression about us.
“I don’t think their goalkeeper made a save all day. It was a tough one for us to take. They were better than us on the day and we can have no complaints.”
McCann’s frustration can only be amplified with the last 18 minutes being played with AFC Wimbledon down a player following Huseyin Biler’s second yellow card on Hurst for a bad tackle.
Doncaster only had four shots following the dismissal, none of which troubled Bass. Omar Bugiel was also given his marching orders in added time by Oliver Yates.
The Northern Irish manager continued his assessment of the game, adding: “For me, I didn’t smell it at all. I could just see it.
“I said to the lads at half-time that we need to find something from within because we didn’t seem like we’d got anything in us.
“I know we’ve had some poor performances, like at Newport away, but in front of 700 fans, we gave them nothing and I don’t think their keeper had a save to make.
“We didn’t deserve anything and there’s no point in saying that we did. We had some semi-half chances but when we got to the final third our crosses were poor and we didn’t get on the end of anything.
“We were way away from what we’ve shown over the last few months.”
McCann does not have long to recover from the loss, having to travel to Accrington Stanley for a ticket to the second round of the FA Cup on Tuesday.
Writer’s View
Grant McCann will be rightly frustrated that his side could not make their advantage count on Saturday. Doncaster are a team that should be challenging towards the top of the league, but their dreadful start to the season has left them in the lurch. Having that much possession yet so little attacking threat is worrying. Hopefull, for Rovers fans this will be just a bad day in the office, and that Tuesday night will offer a prime opportunity to redeem themselves.
League Two is a division of fine margins. Many of Doncaster’s early performances had the signs of a good team, but it just did not click for them. McCann has got his side out of the initial rut and delivered some good performances, and were perhaps unlucky not to get a result against Everton in the EFL Cup. 19th place does not make for easy reading, yet Doncaster are only seven points away from the play-off spots. A few wins on the bounce will put them right into the mix.
Football journalist with The Real EFL since 2023. A 2024 Multimedia Journalism graduate from the University of Salford, Lewis specialises in Salford City FC and EFL coverage.
