Doncaster Rovers hoping for at least one home friendly this summer against higher division team
Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann has confirmed that the club are hopeful of one, possibly two, home friendlies against a Premier League or Championship team in pre-season.
Most summers usually see Rovers end their preparations for the upcoming campaign with a home fixture against higher level opposition. However, last year they were unable to do that due to staggered starts across the Premier League and EFL, meaning the best they could do was a home game against fellow third tier side Blackpool.
But the expectation is that this year will see the return of at least one high-profile team visiting DN4 for a friendly. When asked if that was the plan by the Free Press, manager McCann said: "Yes, it is. I think the last friendly will be here (at home) but we haven't quite finalised it yet. We're actually trying to get the last two games here, so we're just waiting to hear back from the other side.
"But hopefully, that's the plan. We've got a lot of names in for the games, but we haven't actually finalised them yet."
The 2026-27 campaign is due to begin for Rovers on the weekend of August 8-9 when the first round of the Carabao Cup acts as the EFL's curtain-raiser.
The following weekend (August 15-16) will then see the first league games of the season commence. The hope is that by that time Rovers will be able to play on a much-improved surface as the Eco-Power Stadium pitch gets what the club describes as an "enhanced renovation" over the off-season.
McCann added: "I don't think it's a full renovation. I think it's more just patching up the areas that need it. But I know Gavin and Terry have already spoken about a new pitch being put in place, but I don't know when they can do it. Obviously there's all the events like the boxing and the music festival, so it'll definitely not be this year.
"I think we all know it needs to be replaced, you can see that. And if it's going to be like it was (in winter) next year, in the second half of the season, then we need to adapt to how we did this year, because we did okay on it in certain spells."