Grant McCann ‘hurting’ as Doncaster lose again

Doncaster boss Grant McCann admits he and his players are “hurting” as their nightmare run of form continued at Blackpool.

Rovers lost 1-0 to their fellow strugglers as their horror run extended to just one league win in their last 15 outings. After starting the season well and being joint-top in early September, Rovers are now second-bottom and three points from safety.

Blackpool opened the scoring on 17 minutes when Tom Bloxham, on as an early substitute, fired home from close range after the lively Danny Imray found an opening down the visitors’ left flank.

The hosts could have extended their lead through Albie Morgan, whose speculative volley was well saved by Rovers stopper Ian Lawlor.

McCann’s men, in truth, offered little going forward with their best chance coming late on as Brandon Hanlan’s goalbound effort was cleared off the line by the back-tracking Olly Casey.

“We’re hurting, we really are,” McCann said post-match. “We’re hurting at this moment in time. It’s not nice. We’ve prepared for this game really well today.

“We wanted to come here with a real plan and your plan goes out the window as soon as they go 1-0 up. You’ve got to try and manipulate a different sort of plan to get ourselves back into the game.

“We’re not producing, none of us are producing, so all we can do is analyse it, look at it, try and go again.

“Only two weeks ago when we were at Cardiff we played with expression but we couldn’t defend. Today we just didn’t play with any expression, apart from the last 20-30 minutes of the game.

“But ultimately we’ve conceded another poor goal. It’s difficult to stand there and see that. It’s hard. One player has to stick and go through with their job. It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately it doesn’t happen.”

McCann’s emotions were the polar opposite to those of Blackpool chief Ian Evatt, whose side have now taken 10 points from their last four games with three shut-outs to boot.

“We had to work for it at the end,” he said. “In the first half we were quite comfortable, and scored a goal that we had worked on at the training ground. I thought Danny Imray was magnificent all afternoon, he was always a threat.

“We looked in control. I knew this would be a tough game for a number of reasons. When you don’t train the day before the game, physically it can have an impact and for all of how we want to be an attractive team, today was just blood, guts and plenty of courage.

“Those scrappy wins can sometimes be just as enjoyable as the fancy ones. The players have proven to me that they can do it and that was one of the challenges I’ve given them, because in this league you need to win in different ways and do the hard yards.”