Grant McCann put his “worst Sunday ever” to good use as Doncaster shook off their demons to sweep aside Leyton Orient.
McCann was left to pore over his side’s 3-3 draw with Wigan, in which they let a three-goal advantage slip, at the weekend but used it to help inspire Rovers to bounce back with confidence.
A brace from Owen Bailey plus a Luke Molyneux penalty saw Rovers again open up a 3-0 lead over Orient before this time showing calmness and assurance to keep the visitors at arm’s length.
“I felt we managed the game much better,” McCann said. “We had a couple of meetings with the players over the last few days about things we can improve on.
“I had the worst Sunday ever, locking myself away in the office in my house and worked on our game and worked on Leyton Orient.
“I came in on Monday and was really honest with the players about the things we really need to improve on.
“What we did tonight was show what we did on Saturday up until Wigan scored their first goal. But we didn’t panic tonight, we were calm, assured and the shape of the team was good.
“It was a really good controlled performance with three really good goals.
“I thought we were outstanding in the first half, going forward in control, creating loads of opportunities and we probably should have scored more.
“I think we learned from the weekend and put it to good use.”
Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens felt his side allowed themselves to be dictated to by how Doncaster approached the game and declared himself embarrassed on behalf of the club’s supporters.
Wellens was furious with the performance and admitted he contemplated making multiple changes before half-time to try to tip the balance of the game.
“It was shocking, so poor,” he said. “From the first whistle their system dictated what we did. Their right-back (Jamie Sterry) had a field day over the first 20 minutes with no pressure and constant through-balls.
“We’ve done that system really well against the likes of Cardiff but it caused us a lot of problems. We wanted to go to a back four but we didn’t have the personnel on the pitch to do it.
“Forget talent, imagination, forget skill and all the good things about football – if you don’t turn up and work hard, you get nothing.
“I’m embarrassed for our supporters that they’ve come and watched that where we don’t compete.
“We played Doncaster at home and we physically outran them, outfought them, won duels and won 4-0. Today was the total opposite.
“We need some players in. There’s three or four players that we need.”
