‘Didn’t deserve anything’ - Grant McCann on Doncaster Rovers’ loss to Plymouth and Hakeeb Adelakun’s absence

Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann believes his team were outfought and outworked during their 3-2 defeat at home to Plymouth Argyle.

Goals from Will Evans, Aribim Pepple and Caleb Watts were enough for the visitors to earn all three points despite Alfie May levelling proceedings with a second half penalty and defender Sean Grehan scoring his first goal for the club with a header from close range.

Reflecting on a difficult afternoon for his team, McCann said: “I thought they deserved it, they were better than us, from minute one to the 96th minute. They had a team that was more physical than us, worked harder than us, had more energy than us.”

Doncaster actually started the game the brighter of the two sides, particularly in the first 20 mins where Brandon Hanlan missed a golden chance from close range before also heading another opportunity over the bar minutes later.

McCann says missing chances has been a theme throughout the season, but reiterated the point that he felt his team deserved nothing from the game. He added: “I think it's been a bit of a tale for the start of the season, we've missed good chances in games. But, pleased, the players are in the sort of positions to miss chances like we're in, obviously.

“But I think overall, we didn't deserve anything. I felt like they had more energy than us, they were more aggressive than us, they looked after the ball better than us.

“It's another game where I'm having to raise my voice at half-time, which I don't like doing. It's not what I used to respect when I was a player as a manager, losing his head. But it's sort of reactive stuff again in the second half. We come out, we start well, tremendous run from Brandon.

“We get the penalty, Alfie scores. For five minutes, we're okay. And then we just explode. It's just nowhere (good enough) we deserved to lose today.”

McCann opted to select the exact same team that drew 1-1 at home to Notts County in midweek, meaning once again there was no place in the team or even the matchday squad Hakeeb Adelakun.

When asked about his absence, McCann explained: “Just rotation. We’ve got a big squad.”

McCann went on to explain that the group will be looking at footage of this match to show the players what went wrong and the areas they can improve before implementing a clear plan to work on these issues on the training ground.

“Disappointing day at the office, “ McCann said: “We got beat by a better team. Not much else to say.”