Grant McCann says Doncaster ‘playing with confidence’ after beating Wimbledon

Confidence is brimming at Doncaster and manager Grant McCann is convinced it can carry his side through to a strong finish to the campaign.

Doncaster beat AFC Wimbledon 1-0 to stretch their unbeaten run to five matches, with fears of being involved in a relegation fight now firmly banished.

“I think we’re playing with confidence and that helps,” he said. “We feel good about ourselves at the moment and we feel strong in all departments.

“The bench is strong and people are missing out on the matchday squad which is really helping us to keep the competition healthy.

“I think we have players in good form. I’m pleased with the whole team effort and the ruthlessness in both boxes – defending ours and attacking at the top end of the pitch.”

Hakeeb Adelakun scored the only goal of the game – extending his run to three in six matches after his January loan move from Lincoln.

Doncaster looked the more dangerous side throughout and handled late pressure from Wimbledon with relative ease.

McCann wants his side to deliver the best form in the division in the remaining games – and they are off to a good start as they sit second in the form table over the last five matches.

“I said a few weeks ago that we want to finish the season as strong as we can,” McCann said. “We had 18 games left. I showed those 18 games to the boys and told them I wanted them to finish top of that 18-game table.

“We’ve started that quite well with 11 points from the first five games and we just want to continue to build and see where we go.”

Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson was taking charge of his 100th game at the club but could only watch his side’s play-off aspirations continue to falter, with a third defeat from their last four league outings.

“We have got to keep working hard on the training pitch,” he said. “I know what we served up was not good enough and the supporters rightly showed their frustration. I’ve no issue with that.

“We deserved that reaction because it wasn’t good enough.

“The reality is that we’re in an OK position. We didn’t win but if we had we’d have been right under the tails of that top seven.

“We have to remember the situation we’re in and it’s not doom and gloom but today feels like a poor day because of the performance.

“We have a week on the training pitch and we have to be bang up for it. We need to attack the game next week and give the supporters a team they can get behind.”