Grant McCann praises Hull City and Doncaster Rovers after vital win

The Tigers were worthy of the three points, but McCann's opposite number Darren Moore felt Rovers were hard done to by Tom Eaves's 87th minute winner, two minutes after coming off the bench.

It was an excellent display from Hull, but until then it lacked a killer touch.

“I thought it was a really good performance bar a 10 to 15-minute spell in the second half where we got a wee bit lax in our shape,” said McCann, the last manager to take Doncaster into the League One play-offs.

“They're one of the better footballing teams in the league but we kept coming, coming and coming.

“Their back four defended really well for them so I've got to keep Doncaster credit for that.

“The subs had a really big impact for us.”

McCann gave credit to the Rovers back four for the fact Hull were unable to add to Josh Magennis's first-half free-kick until so late in the contest.

“Sometimes you've got to give credit to the opposition for their defensive ability,” said McCann. “We had to keep going.

“We conceded a goal from their first shot on target (scored by Rovers substitute Tyreece John-Jules).”

Another reason, McCann felt, was that Wilks was denied a penalty his manager felt he should have had when goalkeeper Joe Lumley went one-on-one with him. Wilks was booked for diving.

“It was a penalty,” insisted McCann. “Malik's gone past him and the keeper's caught him. I saw it back instantly on the bench. I'm really, really disappointed not to get it. I thought the linesman probably could help the referee.”

Hull's strength in depth was highlighted by the fact Eaves scored for the third game running, but cannot displace Magennis.

“That's four goals (this season) now and he hasn't started many games just because of the form of others,” explained McCann.

“He just needs to keep building his fitness up. The reason why we had so many changes against Stevenage (in the FA Cup second round, a tie Hull lost on penalties) is we've got eight games this month and we've got three injuries as a result of that game.

“We're going to need everyone.”

Jordy De Wijs fractured his eye socket at the weekend but McCann is hopeful he might return to training inside a week, possibly with the aid of a mask. Dan Batty and Callum Jones picked up hamstring injuries.

Moore felt the defeat was harsh but was not prepared to criticise on-loan goalkeeper Lumley, whose save from Richie Smallwood's long-range effort put the ball into Eaves's path.

“It stings because we’ve lost the game,” said the Doncaster manager. “It was a good game and one where we feel we should have come away with something.

“It was a lapse of concentration. When you analyse the two goals we’ve conceded it’s just two lapses of concentration that have cost us.

“We had spells in the game where we hurt Hull in terms of us creating good opportunities.”

Of Lumley's part in the winning goal, he said: “You learn from it and that’s the only thing you can do.

“He’s an exceptional goalkeeper and nine times out of ten he deals with that.

“You quickly have to put it to the back of your mind because in the next 48 hours we have another game.”

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