Championship promotion hopefuls Leeds United sent Mallik Wilks out to League One Doncaster Rovers and he nearly cost his side in the FA Cup.
Doncaster Rovers just about avoided one of the first FA Cup shocks of the season on Sunday. Grant McCann’s side were a goal down against ten-man National League North outfit Chorley, only for Liverpool loanee Herbie Kane to rescue a 2-2 draw with a stunning curling strike late on.
Fortunately for Rovers, Kane was more clinical than Mallik Wilks.
The Leeds United-owned striker missed a glorious chance in the first half, seeing his shot deflected on to the post and away before being denied by a superb reflex save from Chorley goalkeeper Matty Urwin.
Speaking to the Doncaster Free Press after the game, McCann singled out Wilks after a profligate display which, if it had not been for the inspired Kane, could have cost his team dear.
“We just didn’t get the breaks in the box,” said the former Peterborough United boss.
“Mallik Wilks should score a hat trick. Their ‘keeper made outstanding saves but we should be scoring in those positions.”
19-year-old Wilks initially enjoyed a positive start to life at Doncaster, but the goals have dried up in recent weeks with just two in his last 17 games.
The teenager is out of contract at the end of this season and his long-term future at Elland Road has been in doubt for a while, with McCann telling the Yorkshire Post that he believed Wilks would never get a chance to play first-team football for Leeds.
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