Doncaster Rovers v Accrington Stanley: Grant McCann targeting FA Cup run as he makes strength vow

A run to the fourth round in the 2020/21 season landed Rovers a meeting with West Ham United, although their performance in the competition has been in decline since.

Non-league outfit King’s Lynn Town stopped Rovers in their tracks last year and McCann is keen to avoid another early exit.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he said: “We’ll be as strong as we possibly can.

"There were a few knocks and niggles from the last game that we’ve been assessing throughout the week to see if they can go again for us.

“We want to be as strong as we can. We’d like to have a good run in the FA Cup. It’s something for the football club that is important and it’s important for us so we’ll see how we go.

“We know it’s against an in-form Accrington team and a good team that John [Coleman] has put together.

"They’ll be disappointed they came down last season and they’ll be looking to go straight back up.

“But this is a cup game and we know we’re up against a good Accrington team and we’ll have to be at our best.”

Doncaster and Accrington last met in February 2022, when the former ran out as 2-0 winners.

McCann’s men have home advantage but Accrington have been considerably more impressive than Rovers in League Two this season.

McCann said: “They’re a good team. John has recruited well and he’s kept a lot of the players he had in League One last season.

"They’ve got a lot of threats at the top end of the pitch, they’ve got good energy and they’re really good on transitions.

“There’s a lot of elements this week we’ve had to work on to try to stop that and hopefully on the flip side we can hurt them at the other end.”