Grant McCann's verdict on Doncaster Rovers' win over Leyton Orient + praise for debutant Neill Byrne
Grant McCann was delighted Doncaster Rovers learned their lessons from last weekend as they easily held on for all three points against Leyton Orient.
Last Saturday saw Rovers throw away a 3-0 advantage against Wigan, in the end having to settle for just a solitary point. But after Owen Bailey's brace sandwiched Luke Molyneux's penalty to give them the same three-goal buffer against Orient, there would be no history repeating itself. McCann's men dominated the match and restricted Orient to effectively nothing (they registered zero shots on target) as they saw out the win with ease.
"I thought we were really in control of what we did tonight," McCann reflected. "I thought we were outstanding in the first half, going forward in control, creating loads of opportunities and loads of chances. I thought we probably should have scored more, but I was pleased with the two. In the second half it was nice to score early from a set-play that we worked on.
"We didn't foresee their 'keeper dropping it, but you've got to have people in the round to finish it. And then after that, I thought we just managed the game superbly.
"I think we learned from the weekend. We got ourselves in a better shape, organisation and had good positions to transition on them.
"I just felt we managed the game better today. We had a couple of meetings with the players over the last couple of days about things that we think we can improve on.
"What we've done tonight is we've showed exactly what we did on Saturday up until probably they scored their first goal.
"But we didn't panic tonight. We were calm and it was a really good controlled performance with three really good goals."
McCann also had warm words for debutant Neill Byrne, who enjoyed a winning start to life at the club barely 24 hours after signing on loan from Bradford.
"He was calm, assured, experienced, he talks," McCann said of the centre-half. "He played against probably the best and in-form striker in the division today and didn't give him a sniff. It was an excellent debut and I knew he'd deliver that because he can play as well."
Next up for Rovers is a Saturday lunchtime trip to Bradford - a game Byrne is ineligible to play in.