Grant McCann lauds Billy Sharp after striker’s dramatic winner for Doncaster

Manager Grant McCann praised evergreen striker Billy Sharp after he snatched a last-gasp 2-1 win for promotion-chasing Doncaster against Fleetwood.

The game looked set to be heading for a stalemate after Fleetwood substitute Matty Virtue cancelled out Owen Bailey’s opener for Rovers.

But Sharp pounced on a Joseph Olowu flick-on to turn home deep into added time for an important win in the automatic promotion race – much to his manager’s delight.

“Billy has done it for many, many years,” McCann said.

“The work he does for the team probably goes unnoticed at times – both him and Joe Ironside.

“They take a lot of the flack and we sort of use them as decoys at times in terms of their movement for wide players.

“They’re so important in what they do, not only on the pitch but off the pitch as well. I’m really pleased we’ve got the win.”

Fleetwood’s equaliser came after a mistake from Rovers’ George Broadbent and McCann was delighted with the way his team got behind the midfielder and ultimately went on to secure the win which lifted them back to second in League Two.

He added: “To be a successful team, when one of your team-mates makes a mistake, one of the things you need to do is go and rectify that mistake.

“I think that happened today. I’m really pleased for the lads to dig deep, to get the job done. We kept going right until the end and got our rewards.”

Fleetwood boss Pete Wild declared himself ‘gutted’ to leave without a point.

He said: “I thought our performance levels were excellent and the lads went out and executed the plan against a team that is right up there and is going to be pushing all the way for promotion.

“We did really well and I was really pleased with how we went about our business.

“However, I’m not daft and ultimately it’s a results business. I thought we were far the better team and they’ve had two shots at goal and that is for twice not tracking our men into the box.

“We discussed after the game not taking our chances, which is something we talked about after Sunday’s game. We got into some fantastic areas and we’ve not taken the chances.

“We’ve got to track our runners and not doing that is why we’ve conceded the two goals.

“Just before the high boot for the free-kick, the ball was bouncing and there was uncertainty and that’s where we’ve got to just put our foot through it.

“Sadly, I think that’s been our Achilles heel on what has been a top performance.”