Chesterfield coach Gary Roberts has heaped praise on Doncaster Rovers boss Grant McCann ahead of the two sides' quickfire reunion this weekend.

Rovers dished out a 5-1 thumping to the Spireites in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday night. And they will do it all again, this time in Derbyshire, on Saturday night in the FA Cup second round.

Speaking to the media, first team coach Roberts gave his take on the job McCann has done at Rovers since returning for a second spell in the dugout.

"I think they’re quite drilled as a club," Roberts said. "They’ve flattened a lot of teams in the Vertu Trophy. We’ve watched the Grimsby one, they flattened Grimsby, they’ve beaten Bradford, they obviously beat us.

Chesterfield coach Gary Roberts (front row, right) has heaped praise on the job Grant McCann has done at Rovers.

placeholder image — Chesterfield coach Gary Roberts (front row, right) has heaped praise on the job Grant McCann has done at Rovers.

“But their first team are pretty similar in the way they play. Those lads (who played on Tuesday) can go into their first team and play in the same system. Grant has done a superb job with them.

“They’ve been unlucky in the league games, they should have a lot more wins and that’s my opinion. We’ve probably seen eight or nine games of them. They’re a really decent team and I don’t think they’ll be too dissimilar in the way they play on Saturday night.”

Chesterfield expect to be able to call upon influential duo Ryan Stirk (quad) and Will Grigg (groin) for the cup tie, with both having missed the Trophy game.

Kick-off on Saturday is 7.30pm, owing to live TV coverage.