Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann demands more from his players after Mansfield Town point

Rovers drew 2-2 against Nigel Clough’s side at the Eco-Power Stadium to put Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Newport County behind them, but were pegged back twice.

The hosts took the lead through Tom Nixon and Joe Ironside’s first goals for Doncaster in either half, but Louis Reed and George Maris responded for Mansfield respectively.

Many inside the stadium thought it was a point gained for Rovers after the visitors finished the match in the ascendancy, but McCann was not in agreement – and revealed his conversation with the players at full time.

He said: "I heard a couple of 'well done's' and I said 'I don't know why you are saying well done, we have drawn 2-2 at home'.

"I know we were playing against a very good Mansfield team but we need to get into the mindset that we need to be winning at home.

"That is something we need to be building on. I am sure it will come in time.

"I think the group will just get stronger and better week by week.

"There will be downs, there will be defeats, don't get me wrong. But we will continue to improve as they understand how we want to work and how we want to play."

A first league win of the season of the season may have proved elusive but Doncaster did score their first goals of the campaign and pick up their first point.

On the reaction of his players, McCann, who made six changes to his starting XI from the weekend, said: “I thought we got the fight, the determination, that part of it right.

"You need that in any league, it doesn’t matter if it’s a League Two or a Premier League game.

"You need that energy, you need that fight. You need that willingness to defend. We didn’t see that at Newport.

"I apologised to the players for changing the shape after 21 minutes, because it was something we hadn’t worked on.

"But I think if I had left it like that we could have been five or six down in the first half.

"It was a really disappointing day but it’s gone and we have shown a reaction tonight.”