Grant McCann on How He Found Something Extra in on-loan West Ham United Midfielder
The 20-year-old has only started three League Two games since joining on loan from West Ham United just before the season began.
McCann felt he started to see the best of him last week when Kelly kicked off wins over Barrow and Grimsby Town.
So it is a disappointment for Rovers that he will miss the visit of Crewe Alexandra because he will be representing Northern Ireland’s under-21s against Azerbaijan in Ballymena.
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There is another international break in November, when Doncaster host Salford City, but it is the last of 2024, and McCann is hopefully Kelly will have some rhythm by then.
“He’s been really good the last couple of games and hopefully this is the last of it for him after these international games (because) it’s been a bit stop-start for him,” he said. “After these next games he only misses one for us, plays two for Northern Ireland and I think we’ll see more consistency for him like he has in the last two games.
“When we signed him we knew he’d be away for international games. We knew after this break we’d see a lot more of what PK can bring to the team. We’ve seen what his attributes, his travelling with the ball, his recoveries.”
And McCann revealed how he was able to find a little extra from his player.
“I sat with him a couple of weeks back and asked him his strengths,” he revealed.
“One of them I disagreed with him because I hadn’t seen it yet. He was taken aback by it a little bit.
“It was aggression, pressing, getting after the ball and recovering. I know he has that, he was excellent at that at West Ham, but sometimes when you step up to League Two it’s a different type of challenge.
“Just showing him some of his numbers and where he is compared to the rest of the midfielders in terms of sprint distances and things like that, I think he was quite surprised but the last two games he’s played he’s gone through the roof on that.
“Sometimes you just need to give younger players a little reminder of what it’s like to play at this level.”
