'Fuming with myself' - Grant McCann's honest verdict after Doncaster Rovers thumped by Cardiff City

Rovers were well-beaten 4-0 at home by the league leaders. The visitors went in front in the first half through Alex Robertson's goal after a good pick-out from Dylan Lawlor. Lawlor then turned goalscorer thanks to a superb, dizzying run that saw him start deep inside his own half.

Goals from Cian Ashford and sub Callum Robinson added gloss for City, who remain top of League One. McCann, speaking to the media, admits he should have made a change much earlier. Just after Rovers went 3-0 down, McCann took off both centre-halves - Neill Byrne and Jay McGrath - and brought on central midfielders as he switched to a back three.

"I'm absolutely fuming with myself because I knew within 25, 30 minutes," he said. "I knew in my head what change would help us and I should have done it at half-time. So I'm going to be really disappointed with myself for the next couple of days. I said to the players, I feel like I've let you down, to be honest with you. The goal (Lawlor's) doesn't happen if I'd have done the change. What I mean by that is our two centre-backs were redundant in the game. My two centre-backs were doing literally nothing in the game and I should have took them off at half-time

"And it's nothing to do with Jay or Neill because they've been brilliant and their performances are good. But it was a game where we actually didn't need them. So when we went to the three with Owen Bailey in between and I felt when we were 3-0 down, we caused more problems."

Regarding the decision to not make the change earlier, McCann told the Free Press: "I was incisive last week with the changes at Rotherham. I'm not saying we'd have won the game or anything like that. But it would certainly have stemmed the flow. I had it all planned and set out. We spoke as a staff. We all weren't in agreement, even though I was firm.

I trust my staff. I trust them to the moon and back. But when I have two or three of them indecisive on it, then I'm not going to do it. But in my opinion, looking back, I'm the manager. I should have done it."

Despite all that, McCann described the Lawlor goal as "unacceptable" after the centre-half was allowed to travel more than half the length of the pitch unopposed.

He said: "The second goal is totally unacceptable from our lads. To let a centre-back run the length of the pitch and then let him inside to score is shocking. But I know from a Cardiff point of view, they'll say it's the goal of the season. The whole pitch just opened for him and we just let him run through. For me, that's unacceptable. And we didn't give ourselves a chance after that."