I just want the lads to understand me better – Grant McCann after Doncaster win

Posted Wednesday, November 29, 2023 by PA

Grant McCann will focus on ensuring his messages are getting through to his Doncaster players loud and clear after being left frustrated with aspects of their performance in the win over Colchester.

A Tom Smith own goal and efforts from Mo Faal and Joe Ironside saw Rovers to a 3-1 triumph.

While pleased with the result, McCann felt his side did not heed his instructions to push for more goals after each occasion when they found the net.

“We got the first goal and then we just sat back a bit again,” he said. “It’s something we need to get to the bottom of.

“I spoke to the group and said if it’s something I’ve said, I’d hold my hands up but doing that is not something that’s coming out of my mouth.

“After the first goal, we let Colchester come on to us for a five minute spell and Joe Taylor nearly scored before he actually got the equaliser.

“We made it hard for ourselves but I said to the lads at half-time that if we score the next one, we have to keep going and get more. You have to keep the foot down but we sat off again and Colchester had chances.

“It’s not too much of a dig at the lads because on the whole I thought we were good and it’s a good response to losing in the last minute at Crewe.

“But I just want the lads to understand me better. They have to push themselves up the pitch because we speak about it all the time – scoring and scoring again.”

Joe Taylor netted an equaliser for Colchester before the break but the visitors offered little in the way of real threat in the second half.

Head coach Matt Etherington was bitterly disappointed with United’s performance.

He said: “It wasn’t good enough in the second half and it was probably the worst 45 minutes of football since I’ve come into the role.

“It’s really disappointing. The players kept going until the end and had a couple of chances but we didn’t deserve to win it with that second-half performance.

“Two set-pieces again – players not picking their man up from the second phase. Ultimately those two set-pieces have cost us the game.

“You’re always facing an uphill battle when you’re conceding goals from set-pieces on a regular basis so it’s something that we’re addressing. It’s obviously still not getting addressed properly because we’re conceding goals and we’ll have to have a word about that and a look at the set-up.

“The set-up hasn’t changed throughout the season and it was good early on. Teams will notice that we’re susceptible to set-pieces and we need to do something about it.”