Doncaster Rovers boss sets 'focus' demand as Blackpool lie in wait
Blackpool will travel to League One relegation rivals Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann is not concerned by his side’s inability to take chances as they prepare to face League One relegation rivals Blackpool on Saturday afternoon.
It is the Tangerines that are in the more perilous state of the two sides after their heavy midweek defeat at AFC Wimbledon left them in the relegation zone and without a win in their last four games. By contrast, Rovers reacted well to defeats against Cardiff City and Plymouth Argyle by battling to a 1-1 home draw with Luton Town - although their reward for their efforts could and should have been greater after several goalscoring opportunities were wasted throughout the game.
Such moments can not be allowed to pass during the remainder of the season as Rovers look to extend their third tier stay into a second season after they claimed a dramatic promotion into League One last season. Despite the obvious pressure in Saturday’s game, former Northern Ireland international McCann just wants his players to focus on getting their game right and he remains confident goals will come if they are able to do so.
He told the club website: “They’re all big games at any stage of the season I think. You’ve just got to approach them game-by-game and not get too far ahead of yourself or not too bogged down in what’s gone. The most important thing is to focus on this game and since Tuesday night, where the performance level of our team was really good, it’s disappointing not to win the game but the performance was really good. Now we want to take that performance and turn it into a win. Hopefully we can do that at the weekend.
“It’s important we keep getting the chances, that’s the most important thing. The best teams in the world miss chances, the best strikers in the world miss chances. What is important is that we keep getting in the areas and that’s what I’ll be focusing on because I know the more times we do that, the more chances we are going to get and hopefully the more chances we get.”
Support
Rovers will hope to take advantage of an intriguing set of fixtures that consists of five home games in seven matches. After dropping two points in their midweek draw with Luton, McCann is hopeful the home support will get behind his side once again as they look to boost their bid to avoid the drop and land a blow on Blackpool’s own hopes of survival.
He said: “We need our fans massively over the next lot of weeks. From Saturday’s game, four of the next six are at home so we are going to need our fans hugely to be with us, pushing us and they were. I could sense them during the week at Tuesday night’s game and they were behind us, they were with us and they were pushing us. We are going to need them, we are going to need them all, like they have been all season. We are going to need them massively over this next lot of weeks.”