Mark Robins insists there are “no easy games in any division you’re in”, and his side will have to be both mentally and physically prepared for the fight Yeovil will inject into Saturday’s fixture.
The Scunthorpe manager stressed the importance of instigating “a bit more belief” into Saturday’s game against Yeovil, pinpointing this as the only real thing to be lacking from the midweek defeat to Barnsley.He said: “We need to be mentally prepared for what they’re going to throw at us, while remaining full of belief. We’re going to drive forward and try and put them under as much pressure as we possibly can do.
“On Saturday, if we create the same sort of opportunities we had on Tuesday, we’ll be fairly happy,” he said. “We made chances, we just lacked that final bit of quality, which we’re generally pretty good at.”
Yeovil currently occupy the foot of the League One table, somewhere the Iron have been familiar with earlier on in the campaign. This could help Scunthorpe in understanding what Yeovil will throw at them on Saturday, says Robins.
“They’re scrapping for their lives down at the bottom of the league, a place we’ve spent a bit of time in this season,” he said. "We know exactly what it takes to get out. The monumental effort to get up the table and stay there is a demanding time, certainly with the amount of games we have in League One.”
United duo Alex Davey and Marcus Williams both missed training on Thursday. Davey has missed the last two games with a calf injury, and Robins says the 20-year-old is “still on the comeback trail and in the final stages of his rehab.”
When asked if the Chelsea loanee will be fit for the Yeovil game, Robins said: “We’ll see. We should have a decent squad to pick from, even though we’re without a captain.”
Williams, meanwhile, suffered a muscle spasm in his lower back on Tuesday. Robins told fans to “watch this space” though, describing the injury as “not very serious” while saying he hopes to have him in contention for the weekend. Robins also explained the reasoning behind substituting Isaiah Osbourne after half-an-hour against Barnsley:
“He got a significant whack on the back of his head, but I expect him to be okay on Saturday.”
Robins did not ignore the disappointment of Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat to the Tykes, but he instead chose to focus on the challenge of Yeovil at the weekend.
“Had we won the other night, we’d have gone ninth, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we turn that disappointment into a positive for us going into the game on Saturday, taking the three points whatever it takes.”