Grant McCann makes his priority clear after Doncaster Rovers' dismal display against Notts County

But boss Grant McCann says his immediate priority will be tightening up at the back following another defensive horror show against Notts County.

McCann labelled his side’s defending as “criminal” in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to the Magpies – just one week on from a calamitous 4-0 reverse at Newport County.

Rovers are yet to keep a clean sheet this term and have shipped 10 goals in their opening four league games.

On Saturday they travel to second-placed MK Dons who started the season by scoring five at Wrexham and won 3-2 at Colchester United at the weekend.

“Absolutely,” said McCann, when asked about prioritising defending. “From a team point of view – not just the back four and the goalkeeper.

“We need to be better defensively and more organised and harder to beat.

“You can’t build anything if you haven’t got that foundation of clean sheets and trying to build from there.

“At the minute we’re miles away from where we need to be defensively as a team.”

Rovers are one of only two sides – along with Colchester – yet to register a win in League Two this season. They have now won just two of their last 20 games at this level.

Asked if the club was still bearing the scars of relegation from League One and last season’s dreadful campaign, McCann said: “I can’t speak about the last two years. All I can speak about is what we see at the minute.

“We’ve been supported very well and we get everything we need. There’s nothing wrong inside where we work. We’ve got great support from Gavin [Baldwin], David [Blunt] and Terry [Bramall] and all the people around the club.

“That would be me just sitting here making excuses when there is none.

“The performance [on Saturday] is not where we want to be. We need to get away from these mistakes and errors that are leading to goals.”