Grant McCann's targets fuelling Doncaster desire
Grant McCann won the Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month award for September
Friday 12 October 2018 09:53, UK
Doncaster manager Grant McCann has thrown out the rulebook on 'only focusing on the next game' - and is reaping the rewards.
The phrase, which has long become a staple in press conferences for football managers, has been intended to keep players' feet on the ground, and avoid losing focus on the present.
But soon after McCann walked into the manager's office at the Keepmoat Stadium for the first time this summer, his players were left acutely aware what was expected of them across the whole season.
Two months in, things are going pretty well. McCann's team have dropped three points short of their first target, for the opening 12 games, but 21 points in that time is a solid return for a side who looked more likely to be relegated than promoted last season, and proved enough to earn him the Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month award for September.
"I like to say what I feel, and the standards I expect," he told Sky Sports. "It doesn't always work, but as a player I always preferred to have something to look forward to and achieve.
"We go from game to game which is the old cliche but we want to have targets set out and phases of the season.
"We worked hard in pre-season and set the group a lot of targets, we didn't shy away from expressing what we want to try and do - get promoted.
"We've been straight to the point, the group has bought into it and every day we've trained it's been a high intensity, we've taken that into games too.
"Every 12 games we try to reach the target we reach as a group, that's achievable for us. It gives the players something to try to get to, and improve on every day."
Doncaster's solitary defeat in their first 10 games owes something to the smooth introduction of McCann.
Arriving on June 27 gave him a full pre-season, including a trip to La Manga with his players, and more time to assess and plan before Doncaster's first competitive game than many managers are given.
"I think it was a real advantage, coming in and having a proper pre-season. The week we had in La Manga was great, I got to know the group off the pitch, their family lives and got to know them personally," he said.
"We adapted the way we wanted to play, and what would suit the players. I think they're enjoying it, but there's a long way to go.
"We've had a good start, but we've got some tough games coming up and we want to continue doing what we're doing and continue trying to get better."
Getting better will mean avoiding a repeat of the slump his old side Peterborough suffered last season, where a 20-point haul from their opening nine games was followed up with only nine from the following 12.
McCann's dismissal from the Abax Stadium in February clearly still rankles a little with the 38-year-old, who spent five years at the club as a player before returning as manager in 2016.
He feels he could have got Posh in the top six, given the chance, and perhaps it is that sense of injustice that is motivating him to go one better with Doncaster this time around.
"We were three points off the play-offs with a game in hand," he said. "People can say it tailed off but we were close and probably would have got into the play-offs had I stayed.
"But Steve Evans came in with a task to get them into the play-offs, and didn't do it. Now they've had a re-shuffle, and a lot of new players have come in, and Steve picked up the award up last month.
"They won five out of five [in August] but since they've only won two out of six, so we know we need to continue our consistency so far."
