Caretaker manager Andy Dawson provided his post-match thoughts to iFollow Iron after the 3-2 home loss to Bradford City.
Three early goals from Billy Clarke, Jermaine Anderson and Eoin Doyle were scored by the visitors, before Kyle Wootton and Lee Novak got a couple back for Scunthorpe in the second-half. Indeed, United came close to a late leveler, but Wootton’s late chance was cleared off the line.
Dawson said: “We conceded three goals in the space of 12 minutes, and it was like the Charlton game in that regard. Apart from that. I thought we responded well. In the second-half we dominated and had chances, producing some good football.
“Inevitably we lost 3-2 though. A game of football is 90-95 minutes and we’re not competing for long enough in them. That isn’t good enough. It’s small instances – Bradford haven’t come here and dominated. We know we lost the game because we didn’t deal with that 15-minute spell.
“The one thing we did show was character in the second-half. It’s easy to buckle at 3-0, but they came out fighting, scoring two goals and we had one cleared off the line at the end of the day. The fans were brilliant. In the second half, they stuck with us. I’m sure they believed, as I did, that we’d score late on. They came out and hit it head on (in the second-half), and I thought we should have had a draw out of the game if I’m totally honest with you. Bradford had four shots on target all game.
“The brutal truth is we’ve lost again, and if we don’t defend those small periods of games better, and I’m talking about these 10-15 minute spells in games here and there, and aren’t psychologically switched on, keep demanding from our team-mates, if the gaps are too big, we’ll get punished and that’s what’s happened in the last two games. We need to do better in those instances.
“You keep fighting and never give up. In the end, if you keep working harder than the opposition you get your luck and I hope it happens next week (at Plymouth), and we get that little bit of fortune. That first goal was going into Jak’s (Jak Alnwick) hands before the deflection, but we have to accept it, learn from it, move on and become better.
“We have one more game now and if we can take anything from this, then it’s we need to keep producing the quality, getting it in the box and taking the opportunities. You have to deal with pressure, because it’s a pressure situation we’re in with a full house at Plymouth next week, but that’s what we’ll be working on this week.
“People will see what they want and report what they want, but they’re a good group who give everything. We should have got something out of that game, and the reality is we didn’t because we didn’t deal with the 15-minute spell in the first half. If you don’t deal with those spells of pressure, you won’t win any game of football.”
Funso Ojo came off injured during the game, and Dawson reported an update afterwards, saying: “Funs took a bang to the head and is a little bit better now, but will be assessed again tomorrow and Monday. He was a loss to us in the game, but Lundy (Matthew Lund) came on and was exceptional – as was Clayton (Lewis).”
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