Grant McCann thinks Doncaster are trending in right direction after Crawley win

Posted Wednesday, October 04, 2023 by PA

Grant McCann is delighted to see Doncaster climbing the Sky Bet League Two standings but he is refusing to get caught up in talk of tables at this stage of the season.

After taking eight attempts to pick up their first league win of the campaign, Rovers now have three victories from their last four matches after seeing off in-form Crawley 2-0 at the Eco-Power Stadium.

A Mo Faal strike and a Joe Ironside penalty saw Doncaster deservedly end Crawley’s winning run at five matches.

The performance and result was much more like what McCann expected from his team and he has full faith in his squad’s ability to join the promotion race.

“There’s 35 games left and it’s going to chop and change a lot between now and the end of the season,” McCann said.

“We’re quite calm in terms of where we are. We want to be better obviously, but we’re calm and know we’ll start improving and get better all the time.

“Over a number of weeks now, we’ve seen that. We stepped off it at the weekend, but we’ve regained it tonight.

“In a lot of aspects of what we want to be and what we’re about, it was the best performance of the season.

“It reminded me a bit of the game at Hull in the Carabao Cup when we tried to jump on top of them.

“I was pleased with the whole team, including the lads who came on later because they made a real impact. We thoroughly deserved to win.”

Crawley manager Scott Lindsey felt his side lacked their usual creative streak as they saw their winning run ended.

“We said at half-time we felt our possession was good but we didn’t create enough,” he said. “We had players on the pitch with goals in them and creativity too, but we didn’t see enough of that.

“We started reasonably well and felt we dominated and controlled the first 25 minutes, but we gave away a poor goal and it was a fine example of goals changing games.

“Doncaster are a side in a false position and it was a tough game.”

Lindsey felt referee Martin Woods was wrong to award Doncaster a penalty as Mo Faal tumbled with Will Wright in the box.

“As the ball comes in, Will is pushed over and as he falls, he takes the player with him,” he said. “The referee gives the penalty, but what about the push on Will?

“It’s just crazy that it’s a penalty to me. It’s a foul the other way and it’s a killer for us because we have an uphill challenge against a side who keep the ball really well.”