"Ruthless time" - Grant McCann ready for tough Doncaster Rovers decisions + recruitment update
Grant McCann is ready to get "ruthless" as he prepares to lay the foundations for next season.
Doncaster Rovers welcome Stevenage to the Eco-Power Stadium on Saturday (12.30pm) for their final home game of the campaign. A visit to McCann's old club Peterborough comes seven days later, before a summer that will likely see more churn in terms of ins and outs at Rovers.
Whilst the focus is clearly on the two remaining fixtures, McCann admits that progress has already been made to some extent in terms of recruitment. His comments suggest that these two matches could allow him to give game time to some of those on the fringes, as was the case in Tuesday's defeat to champions Lincoln. Tom Nixon and Darren Robinson both enjoyed cameos against the Imps after lengthy spells out of the first team picture.
Right-back Nixon was making his first appearance in a league game since February, with Robinson not having featured since the away trip to Bradford in January.
"It was good to get those two on the pitch and we might see that over these last two games with some of the younger ones, too," McCann told the Free Press. "It's good to be able to give these opportunities because a lot of the lads in the squad have had ample opportunities this year and obviously we've got some big decisions to make.
"It'll be a good couple of days in training and we'll look forward to the Stevenage game but then it's ruthless time where I need to be honest with the players and say what's going to happen.
"But we're ahead of the game already and we're speaking to some players that we like and I'm trying to crack on with the recruitment really."
Tuesday night saw Leicester City's relegation from the Championship confirmed. Touching briefly on next season, McCann added: "I think League One will be stronger next year. If you think it was tough this year, it'll be tougher next. It'll be interesting to see how Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday get on so there's those two plus another from the Championship and then Bromley which isn't an easy place to go, so it'll be tough again.”