Delighted Grant McCann described Doncaster’s display at Middlesbrough as one of their best in the last two years after they stunned the Championship side 4-0 in the Carabao Cup.
McCann, who made 11 changes, labelled his side’s performance as “top class”, with goals from Ben Close, Damola Ajayi, Robbie Gotts and Tom Nixon seeing Rovers comfortably into the second round.
“There was energy, bite, togetherness and quality,” said McCann, who led Rovers to promotion to League One last season after arriving back at the club for his second spell in charge in May 2023.
“For 20 to 25 minutes in the first half I thought it was one of the best performances I’ve seen since I have been back at the club in terms of how we controlled the game.
“It’s always good to test yourself against top Championship managers and coaches and from my team, I couldn’t be more proud.
“I said to them in there, we don’t have a second team, we have a full squad of 23, 24 first-team players – and we showed that.”
The defeat is a first at Middlesbrough for head coach Rob Edwards, who described the heavy setback as “painful”.
He said: “I’ve spoken to the lads, they know exactly how I feel. The first thing I want to start with is acknowledging our supporters, how they were with us tonight. We didn’t hold our end of the bargain up.
“Doncaster have come here and played extremely well but made loads of changes, a whole team of changes and deservedly won the game. That’s not acceptable.”
