Grant McCann's pledge to 'turn it around' at Doncaster Rovers - and do things in reverse in 2023-24

This time last year, his Peterborough United side found themselves in the play-off positions of League One.

At the same juncture of 2020-21, Hull City were sitting pretty in the automatic promotion spots and looking good in their pursuit of an instant return to the Championship under him.

Rewind a little further to 2018-19 and his first spell at Doncaster Rovers, when the club were also healthily placed in the top four of the third tier in October 2018.

This time around, things are somewhat different at Rovers, who find themselves at the wrong end of the fourth tier.

McCann said: "It's always nice to start the season well. I think this is the only job I have probably had where we are going to do it the other way around.

"At every club I have been at, I have always seemed to have started well (in a season).

"I am looking forward to this challenge. It is sort of in a reverse a little bit."

The fact that the Rovers chief is genuinely energised by the task in hand, as opposed to being down in the dumps and bemoaning his lot - he has some justifiable reasons to do so - says plenty about him.

If people write him and his Rovers side off, then so much the better. The Northern Irishman has made his critics eat their words before, after all. He positively revels in it.

His Rovers side have struggled for form and personnel in the first few months of the campaign.

The number of players unavailable for Saturday’s League Two home game with Sutton United is into double figures, with the latest injury additions being young duo Louie Marsh and Bobby Faulkner.

McCann admits he has never known ‘anything like this’. Equally, he is not labouring on the point and is cracking on.

His Rovers side, tipped by many to be among the movers and shakers in the fourth tier in 2023-24, are in a lowly 20th place and are just four points above the bottom two, as it stands.

Their next opponents in Sutton currently occupy the second and final relegation spot. A defeat would constitute another low point for Rovers, but McCann is looking at the bigger picture and is laser-focused.

The steely look in his eye when he says, with confidence, that he will turn things around, speaks of his intent.

Rovers have been afforded few favours in terms of their early season itinerary against a number of big-hitters in League Two.

They are also doing it very tough in terms of their options as it stands. For the time being, they must hang in there.

"We will turn it around, there's no question about that,” McCann stated.

"We have got full belief in what we have got in our club - including staff and players and everybody. It's a matter of time before we get ourselves on a winning run, I have no doubt about that.

"When I say a winning run, I mean a six, seven, eight, nine-game winning run, which I feel you need in this division to be around that top end."

To do that, they will need their treatment room to clear in the not-too-distant.

McCann observed: "I have never seen anything like this, but we focus on the group that are fit and the lads that we are getting out there every week and we keep working with them until the boys get back.

"We had Harrison Biggins back (on Thursday), which is a positive. But there's nothing else available for this weekend. We hope that in the next two, three, four weeks that we can start getting a few of the boys back."

Another factor which is helping to ensure that McCann's glass is half-full is his relationship with the club's supporters, who are showing patience and understanding amid Rovers early-season struggles.

It adds further fuel to his fire to get things right and turn around the fortunes of a club where he has enjoyed some of his happiest times of his time in football - according to not just him, but also his wife Kelly.

McCann added: "I feel like I have got a good affinity at the football club and the fans have been great with us as well. We just want to do well for the club and try and get it to the level where this club deserves to be and can be.

"That’s hard work and takes a bit of time and bedding in. It's having the best players available to select and train as well. But the boys who are in the team at the minute are giving us everything.

"It's getting the balance right with them - and not undercooking or overcooking them, but making sure they are right and ready to go when the games come.”

McCann is making the best of a bad situation, as it stands. Tough times don't last forever.