Plymouth Argyle v Doncaster Rovers: Incentives aplenty as Rovers seek recompense on several fronts
FOR all manner of reasons, Doncaster Rovers players will not be short of incentive when they take the field at Home Park.
For a start, those who don the Rovers jersey will be mindful of getting back in Grant McCann's good books – some more than others, in fairness – following Tuesday night's EFL Trophy exit against Stockport County, one game away from Wembley.
After the game, a bitterly-disappointed and angry McCann pulled no punches and said that a number of his squad were playing for their futures. A total of 13 players are out of contract this summer.
The largely insipid performance against County followed on from last weekend's 4-0 humbling at home to Cardiff City, with Rovers assigned with salvaging something at the end of a bad week against Plymouth Argyle today.
Despite an upturn in 2026, Rovers are under no illusions that they still have work to do to secure their divisional status and there are other driving forces in Devon as well.
Argyle trounced Rovers 5-1 at the Eco-Power Stadium before Christmas, with McCann's troops unlikely to need a team-talk today.
And then there's providing something worthwhile for the club's travelling supporters, who will make a near-600 mile, ten-hour round-trip to Devon.
After making a raft of changes at half-time in the club's recent games against Stockport and Rotherham – and also berating himself for not being more proactive on that front seven days ago – McCann is conscious of getting it right on the selection front from the off this afternoon.
The Rovers chief, who made nine changes for Tuesday's tie with Stockport, said: "We've just got to make sure we pick the team that's ready to go and compete in every game.
"We're playing against a Plymouth team on Saturday who did to us what Stockport did. What they did was take their chances. They just kept playing behind us and the front two ran off us.
"So we know exactly what we're going to come up against on Saturday.
"They've had a bit of a resurgence with probably similar points as us over the last eight or nine games. So they've been in decent form."