Grant McCann slams offside decision as Doncaster bow out of cup to Peterborough

Doncaster boss Grant McCann hit out at the officials and insisted the assistant referee “only has one job” after his side were beaten 2-1 by League One Peterborough in the FA Cup second round.

McCann’s men fell 2-0 behind thanks to strikes from Harrison Burrows and Ephron Mason-Clark but reduced the deficit through Mo Faal before Kyle Hurst hit a post in stoppage time.

Faal thought he had pulled one back earlier in the 69th minute but was denied by the offside flag, a decision that angered McCann.

He said: “Ultimately, we’ve lost but we were hard done by. Watching it back he’s two yards onside, Mo Faal. He’s actually behind the lad when Joe (Ironside) heads it.

“We just needed a bit of the rub of green away from home and we didn’t seem to get it.

“If we’d have scored there, that would have given us 30 minutes to equalise and with that time we would have gotten back into it.

“The man’s got one job and he’s managed to look down the line from the far side and flag it offside. I’m sure we’ll get an apology on Monday morning.

“It was a good performance from us. They’re flying high in League One but we more than matched them.

“Apart from the first 10 minutes, where we showed them too much respect, we grew into the game and looked strong.

“They’re one of the best teams in League One, if not the best. I told the players that if we play like that in our own league then we will be absolutely fine.”

Posh boss Darren Ferguson was relieved to see his side hold onto their lead despite some lax defending which saw Rovers gifted a number of clear-cut chances.

He added: “We didn’t play as well as we have been and we were off it a bit but to win when you don’t play well is a good habit.

“We had numerous occasions to just kill the game off but we didn’t and it was a proper cup tie when the boy scored. They threw everything at us, credit to them. We just managed to see it through.

“We got complacent after the first goal and we were too passive. Nick (Bilokapic) has made two really good saves. There’s one massive chance the boy really should score.

“We gave away too many clear-cut chances, more than we have in the last four or five games. But we had three or four really big opportunities to make it two.”