United manager Mark Robins said he felt his side did enough to emerge victorious in the penalty defeat against Barnsley and praised the application of the players.
It was a tale of penalties as the Tykes saw their first saved, but dispatched the second, before Paddy Madden equalised via the same format. No further goals meant there were a further 18 penalties witnessed, which saw Barnsley win 7-6 on spot-kicks.
“Apart from 15 minutes, I thought we were the better team,” he told The Iron PlayerHD.
“I thought we created a lot of opportunities and chances, we just didn’t take them. They were limited to a penalty, which Joe (Anyon) did brilliantly to save in the first half and apart from that I cannot think of too many opportunities that they had.
“They had a bit of possession. In that 15 minute spell, we kept giving them the ball back and were a little bit sloppy. Once we got the ball back I thought we were very good.
“The only disappointment is that we didn’t take those chances; particularly in normal time when we had quite a lot of chances in the second half.
“We then obviously had the lottery of penalties and unfortunately two of ours missed and only one of theirs did.”
The Scunthorpe boss was happy his side created plenty of chances over the course of the 120 minutes, with him confident that more and more of those chances will be converted as the season progresses.
“We’ve got to be clinical,” he continued.
“Those chances are what wins us the games. If we can be better and more clinical in front of goal, we should be okay – because we are creating those opportunities. What we can’t do is keep spurning them.
“Barnsley are a decent side and I just felt we were better on the night, aside from 15 minutes. The players have to keep going and keep believing themselves and the chances will be taken. Sometimes you have chances and they’re not on target, but we’ve probably had around nine on target tonight.
“Other than that, I’ve got to be pleased with the attitude and application of the players; I thought they were excellent.
“Joe Anyon has done brilliantly all night. He saved one penalty in normal time, saved one penalty in the shoot-out and we’ve unfortunately missed two, so we go out. That’s what you end up facing if you don’t take your chances.
“We now much look forward to our game at Glanford Park on Saturday.”
See much more from Mark Robins, Jordan Clarke and Joe Anyon on The Iron PlayerHD.