Doncaster Rovers v Salford City: Grant McCann cooks up League Two promotion bid in club canteen - for a second time

There's nutritional value all the same, certainly in terms of the League Two table.

From the end of January onwards, a divisional table based on results after a wretched 5-1 home loss to eventual champions Stockport County on January 27 was regularly updated.

It provided enough fuel for Rovers to produce one of the most remarkable promotion pitches of recent times, which so nearly ended in glory.

In the current season, a new chart in the canteen is occupying players’ attention on a daily basis as Grant McCann explains.

The Rovers manager said: "We’ve got a graph in our canteen which goes up after every game, which shows the last five years and what it takes to win this division and where the graph and line would be on two points per game.

"We are slightly below it at this moment in time, so we want to try and get above that line as that will give us a very good chance."

A chart may be a handy motivational tool, but it is the options currently at McCann's disposal which significantly bolster the club's prospects of getting over the line in real terms.

McCann is currently picking from strength and a rare and pleasing sight occurred on Friday. The club's treatment room was deserted at their training ground.

The Ulsterman will have plenty of decisions to make as returning players put their hand up for first-team selection again.

They are the sort that no manager minds, in truth and it's a far cry from swathes of last season when injuries formed a frustrating narrative for Rovers, certainly in the first half of 2023-24.

A game against Stockport again proved pertinent in that regard to McCann.

He continued: "Going back to when we played Stockport away from home last season, we had such a young bench and hardly anything to change it.

"Stockport had six or seven experienced players sitting behind their bench. I was thinking ‘that is the difference.’

"Yes, it’s difficult to keep everyone happy. But we haven’t got anybody who sulks.

"They train well and understand the decisions and are very open and honest with them. And every week, we have decisions.

"We might probably have six or seven not even getting stripped (on Saturday) and that’s not because they are not good enough, it’s just because of what we need for this game.

"I said to the players at the end of the season - and promised them one thing - that we’d put a very strong squad together. I said: ‘I feel I owe that to you’.

"What I mean by that is that any one of that 24 or 25 would not make our team any weaker. We have such a strong group here and we wanted to create that and the boys understand that.

"It’s not just throwing all these players together. We knew from the end of last season that if we keep the ones we wanted to keep and added, we would have a strong group which we are going to need."

McCann does not have just good players at his beck and call, but good characters, including plenty of senior professionals who are the bedrock of every successful football club.

The Rovers boss feels blessed in that regard.

McCann said: "We’ve got a lot of really good professionals who get their heads down and get on with it.

"I had to leave Ben Close and Tom Anderson off the bench (last week); lads who can play in this division and probably the one above.

"It’s big decisions every week in terms of who starts in the team and who is on the bench. We are going to need different things every week."

The biggest testament to Rovers strength is the fact that their 24-goal top-scorer from last season in Joe Ironside has had to bide his time and seen a fair bit of the bench so far this term.

The fact that he has never bemoaned his lot is testament to the culture that McCann has created. A winning culture, which will hopefully be borne out in May as Rovers seek to complete their journey which began amid the heartache and pain of play-off semi-final elimination against Crewe.

"Joe is top, top class. What you see is what you get, McCann observed.

"He’s a huge part to what we are doing here, he really is.

"Whether he plays up top with Billy or is on the bench or starts, he understands. He’s a massive part to this team and will be moving forward."