Grant McCann happy to feel the pressure as Doncaster boss dreams of play-offs

Posted Sunday, March 24, 2024 by PA

Doncaster manager Grant McCann is happy to have a few more sleepless nights as he contemplates an unlikely late push for the League Two play-offs.

Rovers collected a third consecutive win as they strolled past Forest Green Rovers 2-0, ensuring a top-seven finish remains an outside possibility with a 10-point gap to make up.

And McCann revealed he had discussed the prospect with his wife, despite her misgivings.

“I was laying in bed with my wife and I told her about how far off the play-offs we are and she said she doesn’t know why I put so much pressure on myself,” he said.

“I think she knows me by now. I put a lot of pressure on myself, whether it was when I was playing, when I’m managing or even in every day life. That’s the way I like to work.

“For me and this group, it’s all about the next game now. We just want to carry on, game after game now, and see where we are at the end of the season.

“We’ve got a very tough game next week away at Crawley and we’ll prepare the boys as best we can to go and win that one.

“We stuck to our task in this one and got the job done, even though we could have been better with the ball.”

A Luke Molyneux strike and a Richard Keogh own goal, both in the second half, saw Doncaster secure the win after enduring a tough time breaking down stubborn Forest Green.

Steve Cotterill felt the telling factor in the game was confidence, with his Forest Green side smarting from a defeat to fellow strugglers Sutton while Doncaster were enjoying an excellent run of form.

“It’s very much a confidence thing in the league,” said the Forest Green boss.

“When teams get a win, they can quite often go and get another one and it works the other way as well when you get a defeat.

“I think that was the difference between the teams today. They looked confident and maybe if we had played them six or seven games ago, it might have been different. They looked like they were on the crest of a wave and we didn’t.

“We didn’t perform anywhere like I know we can. Admittedly, we were playing a team in form but we’ve done that before and had good results.

“We didn’t show enough. Some of the mistakes we made, we weren’t in any sort of rhythm and it was a disappointing day for us.

“We’ve had those before and we’ve got to try to deal with them because the games are running out.”