Doncaster Rovers boss reveals his message to players after FA Cup defeat to Peterborough

Goals in the early stages of both halves by Harrison Burrows and Ephron Mason-Clark put the Posh firmly in the driving seat in the second round tie.

But Rovers had numerous chances to score throughout an open contest and rallied during the final quarter as Mo Faal’s 75th minute header set up a frenetic finish – during which Kyle Hurst hit the post.

Faal also had a goal ruled out for offside before netting for the third consecutive game.

McCann said: “We’ve gone toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in League One, if not the best.

"I said to the lads in the changing room, ‘continue to play like that in our league and we’ll be fine – we can move ourselves up the league’.

"That’s the standard. We’ve set the standard here today. Ultimately we’ve lost and no one wants to lose but I did feel we were hard done by as well.

"Mo Faal is two yards onside. You need that rub of the green away from home and we just don’t seem to get it.

"If that goal had stood I felt we would’ve equalised. It would’ve given us at least 30 minutes to get an equaliser and I felt the way we were playing we would’ve got that chance.

"The man has one job on the far side of the pitch to look for offsides and ultimately he’s called it offside. I’m sure we’ll get an apology on Monday morning.”

He added: “I thought it was a good performance, I thought we more than matched Peterborough.

"I was proud of the boys, I thought we passed the ball well. We looked in control.

"I think if we’d shown a bit more grit, determination and guile at the top end of the pitch we would’ve scored more than one goal here today.

"We’ve performed well so that’s something we can hopefully use as a benchmark for our league campaign.”

Faal was withdrawn during the closing stages with a dead leg, McCann confirmed.

Richard Wood will be sidelined for about a month after suffering a recurrence of his calf injury, while Zain Westbrooke was also absent from the squad due to a thigh complaint.

Jack Senior could return to action in Tuesday night’s Bristol Street Motors Trophy clash against Nottingham Forest Under 21s.