Luke Molyneux flexibility shows Doncaster Rovers will have more than one approach under Grant McCann

The former Hull City coach has a reputation for favouring 4-3-3 (occasionally 4-2-3-1) and sending teams out to play a distinct, high-pressing style. It is not just a lazy stereotype from journalists and/or fans, but shared within the game.

Speaking ahead of McCann's first game back at Hull, present coach Liam Rosenior said: "He's got a real style he sticks to with his 4-3-3. I respect managers that do that because it means they have a way and they believe in what they're doing."

But on Tuesday night, McCann set his team up in a 4-4-2 to match the Tigers and sat off them. It worked brilliantly, with a 2-1 win.

George Miller grabbed both the goals and with them plenty of headlines, but his strike partner Luke Molyneux was important too.

The 25-year-old started his career as a Sunderland winger, was often used as a lone centre-forward at Hartlepool United and mainly as an inside forward in Danny Schofield's 3-4-2-1 at Rovers last season. McCann, who used him wide on the right against Harrogate Town on Saturday, is not looking to pigeonhole him.

"I see Molyneux as a forward, whether you play him off the right, off the left or as a nine like we did on Tuesday in a 4-4-2, he can play in any of those positions," he said.

"It's the same with Tyler (Roberts), Deji (Ayodeji Sotona), Jon Taylor and Kyle Hurst – they can all play in the position Molyneux played against Hull."

And McCann knows his team cannot always be lured into playing pressing football in League Two. Hull pose a similar threat, albeit they beat the press a different way.

"It's difficult to play against because they wait on you jumping out of your shape," said McCann. "We did it (pressed) for the first 10, 15 minutes on Tuesday and it was more through sheer honesty from Molyneux and Miller.

"It's a little bit difficult in League Two because teams will play over that and go long and direct, so we need to be better at working that out.

"We showed against Sheffield Wednesday in a pre-season game we can press and get after teams, we just need to make sure we have the organisation when teams go over our press.

"There's different ways different teams will play against us."

Like the majority on both sides on Tuesday, Doncaster’s captain for the night Tom Anderson was making his first competitive game of the season and the centre-back lasted the full match after an injury-hit last couple of seasons.

"He played a lot longer than we wanted him to (the plan was for an hour),” admitted McCann.

"It was open dialogue with Tom on the pitch, speaking to him to see how he was feeling. He felt good and he got 104 minutes into him.

"We’ll probably have to look after him and let him settle down because he’s been out for a long time. But we felt he looked good in the game so we kept him on.”