United’s on-loan goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik is delighted that his Peterborough United team mate Shaun Brisley has joined him at Glanford Park.
Brisley has signed for the Iron on a one month loan deal from the Posh which means he is reacquainted with his former number one goalkeeper, from their years of playing together at London Road.Olejnik said: “He’s already stayed over on Wednesday night and I’ve shown him where everything is, the kit and that kind of stuff and I think he’s settling in really well.
“My wife and his girlfriend get on so that’s brought us closer. We’ve worked together and played a lot of games together and I think we have a good understanding of each other and hopefully we can show that on Saturday. It’s been a while since my last clean sheet and I think Shaun coming in will help us massively.
"He’s a great player and the manager asked me about him and I only have praise for him because he’s a really good player and he’s shown that in training already.
"I’m really looking forward to playing with him again. He’s a great player with a lot of games under his belt.”
This weekend see Brisley, Olejnik and the rest of the squad travel to Boundary Park where they will take on Oldham Athletic.
Oldham are unbeaten in their last six league matches but have drawn their last three games giving them eleven points from their first nine games and leaving them 14th in the table.
The Iron’s Austrian goalkeeper believes Russ Wilcox’s side have every reason to go into the weekend full of belief.
He said: “I think we should be very confident, I know the results haven’t been the best so far but I think we’ve shown in training especially that we’re a good side.
"We’ve been trying to work on things that we haven’t been doing well on Saturdays and I think we can go into the game confident because we’ve ironed it out in training.
“I go into every game hoping to get a clean sheet and I think we can take the game to them, nick a goal, keep a clean sheet at the other end and come home with the three points. We’ve been a bit inconsistent so we’re probably due another good performance on Saturday. Hopefully we can do that and keep our consistency levels up."
Last weekend saw Leyton Orient come away from Glanford Park with all three points following a 2-1 win.
Scott Cuthbert gave the visitors an early lead and despite a Matt Sparrow equaliser, Jobi McAnuff’s finish won the game for Orient.
Olejnik, who has had his loan extended to January, felt that it was a chance missed for the Iron.
He said: “We were more frustrated last weekend because we knew we could have won the game. They didn’t have the best of records over the last five games and unfortunately we couldn’t take anything. It was disappointing to concede right at the start as well, the atmosphere died down a little bit. We’ve got to go to Oldham and take the game to them and we’ve been doing it in training so hopefully we can come home with three points.
“The spirit is really, really good and I use the word frustration because that’s what we are, we’re frustrated and disappointed that we’re not getting points because we know we can do better so I think that’s why there’s a lot of confidence in the squad.
“You can always learn more from a loss but at the same time we don’t need to be thinking about ‘well what can we learn from this for next week’ because we need to get a consistent run together and put that bad spell behind us."
Since his arrival into the Scunthorpe United squad Olejnik, the ex-Torquay United, Falkirk and Aston Villa goalkeeper, has made a big impression on his team mates, especially his defenders. Many of them comment on Olejnik’s commanding style of play, which sees the 27 year old using his vocal ability to instruct the players in front of him.
“I don’t actually know I’m that loud to be honest with you, I tend to just commentate," he said.
"But if that helps the players in front of me then that’s good. Part of my job is making sure they know what I want them to do.
"I have played with players before who would switch off a lot and not take on board what I was saying so I hope that I’m making the boys here more confident and that they’re enjoying it.”
With lots of experience of playing in the Football League, Olejnik knows that early season form does not necessarily define a season and believes that Scunthorpe are not in any significant danger at the minute.
Russ Wilcox’s side currently lie 22nd in League One on seven points from their opening nine matches. However they are only four points away from this weekend’s opponents, Oldham Athletic, who sit in mid-table, in 14th.
Olejnik said: “At the minute I’m not looking too much at the table because so much can change, I mean in two weeks you can be near the play offs again. “
“It’s very difficult to talk about relegation at this stage, I mean it’s sort of like asking ‘who’s going to be Player of the Year’, I think it’s way too early because you can pick up six points and be in the play offs so it’s way too early to use the word relegation in my opinion.
"If we’re there in December then that’s a different story but I think we’re good enough, we’ve got more than enough in the dressing room to challenge for the play offs.”
This weekend’s trip to Oldham could see the debut of Shaun Brisley, who made 58 League appearances for the Posh, and his team mate Olejnik was quick to tell his friend how much he is enjoying his experiences at Glanford Park.
When Olejnik was asked if he was enjoying his time at Scunthorpe United, he responded: “Yeah very much so, it’s a great place. That was the first thing I said to Sean yesterday, that he’ll really, really enjoy being here.”
See much more from Bobby Olejnik, and others, on The Iron Player.