‘Totally unacceptable’: Doncaster Rovers chief Grant McCann on Newport County drubbing

Rovers shipped three goals inside the opening 21 minutes at Rodney Parade then conceded straight after the interval to kill their hopes of a comeback on a disastrous day from start to finish.

"Everything that could go wrong went wrong," said McCann, whose side still don’t have a point on the board in League Two after two matches.

"Even including the travel up yesterday when the bus broke down, it just summed it up. Everything went against us.

"I'm not one for excuses, that was totally unacceptable from us."

Just six minutes had passed when Newport opened the scoring.

Exiles striker Seb Palmer-Houlden robbed Joseph Olowu of the ball inside the box and fired past Ian Lawlor, who was then at fault for the second goal.

Lawlor blocked Shane McLoughlin's shot with his legs after seemingly being taken by surprise by the strike, with the rebound falling straight to Will Evans for a tap-in.

McCann lamented "a comedy of errors" which led to the third goal, which went down as an own goal against his captain Richard Wood.

The fourth was scored by an unmarked Evans from the edge of the box four minutes after the restart.

"We just had no answer for it, that was the most frustrating thing," said McCann.

"I spoke to the players at half time and I was totally honest, I didn't see a comeback in their eyes - and I told them that."

Several Rovers players were booked for challenges seemingly made out of frustration amid an embarrassing display.

"We were just nowhere near today," said McCann.

"We were simply not good enough."

Doncaster have a chance to put things right at home to Mansfield on Tuesday night.

"We will try and motivate the boys and go again on Tuesday, and we need to pick the right team,” said McCann.

"If truth be told I probably still don't know my strongest team.

"I gave the boys (who played against Hull) the opportunity today. Was that the right thing after 104 minutes at Hull on Tuesday? I don't know, because we looked a lot less of an energy side today."