‘Top-class’ - Grant McCann backs Doncaster Rovers man Sean Grehan after Rochdale error as bravery claim made

Doncaster Rovers has backed defender Sean Grehan to grow into a ‘top-class’ footballer and has given the youngster plenty of words of encouragement.

Grehan has established himself as a regular starter this season after being a slightly more peripheral figure at times last term.

However, the Republic of Ireland Under-21 captain, who played the full 90 minutes of Rovers’ 6-1 loss to MK Dons, was substituted at half-time during the 4-1 win over Rochdale after a clumsy error which allowed veteran Ian Henderson to open the scoring after 15 minutes.

“Sean's top. He's going to be top-class,” McCann told the Free Press.

“He's 21 years of age.I said to him after the game, ‘I don't ever want you to stop making those types of passes. I want you to keep that sort of bravery about you.’

“He's made a mistake because he tried to break a line with a pass.I'm OK with that. I'm fine. We're all human at the end of the day.We make mistakes.”

“If I said that to my centre-halves, we wouldn't have seen the pass from Jay McGrath for the second goal or the unbelievable split in the lines with passes. I want my centre-backs to be brave.

“So, he'll probably do it again. Hopefully it doesn't lead to a goal against us. And Jay will do it and Byrne will do it and Matty will do it. But I want them to be brave. And that's the most important thing.”

McCann also explained that the decision to take off Grehan at half-time had always been in his mind heading into the Rochdale match due to the amount of minutes that the defender has played recently.

He said: “With Sean, I just said, ‘look, don't be down because of that. Do it again. Make sure you're better with your execution the next time.’

“We're always going to make substitutions at half-time. Sean was always in the head, particularly after playing the whole game on a Saturday. So, it was more of a rotational game, really, the Rochdale game.”