Grant McCann lays down challenge to Doncaster Rovers pair as he makes Owen Bailey admission
Grant McCann hopes that Owen Bailey's time moonlighting as an auxiliary centre-half is over.
The Doncaster Rovers captain, a midfielder by trade, has filled in at the heart of defence on occasions this season and admirably so. The latest example was last weekend when Rovers were beaten at Bradford City. Bailey partnered Jay McGrath to good effect in West Yorkshire, with the hosts sealing the victory thanks to a wonderful volley late on in the contest.
But manager McCann readily admits he does not want to deploy Bailey - who has an eye-raising 13 goals to his name - in his backline if he can help it.
Neill Byrne's return to availability, after being ineligible to face his parent club at the weekend, certainly helps that matter. But McCann has also laid down a challenge to the other two senior centre-halves in his squad: Matty Pearson and Sean Grehan.
Both summer arrivals have struggled for regular game time this term, with Pearson only starting half of Rovers' 28 league games and Grehan racking up just 12 league appearances in total (only six of those being starts).
"Hopefully that's the last we'll see of Bails in the centre-half position," McCann said.
"We need the others to step up now. Matty and Sean - we need to see more from them to make sure I don't (have to) do that again. And that's the challenge to them.
"Neill is back now and Jay was excellent again at Bradford and he's getting better every time he plays, which is good. Like I say, we'll just keep working with them."
Tuesday night sees Rovers head to Burton Albion for a re-arranged fixture. McCann added: "The games are coming fast now for the next few weeks. So there's no time to dwell or be down.
"There's still a long way to go in the season and we'll pick them up. We've been in decent fettle in terms of how we started the New Year so we go again Tuesday."