United striker Paddy Madden believes his side have overcome their ‘bad spell’ and are now well on their way to build upon their recent good results and performances.
Irishman Madden, who has already found the back of net twice this season, is confident that this weekend’s trip to Bristol City can produce another strong Iron performance and a third victory in a row.He told The Iron Player: “The team are starting to gel now.
“Early on in the season teams go through that bad spell and we hit ours at the wrong time but luckily we’re coming through that now and hopefully we can continue our good performances and pick up the win at Bristol City.
“It will be a very tough test. Bristol City have a very good team, they always prepare right and they’re hard to beat so to go away to them is going to make it a tough game, But we’ve got some confidence and at this stage now we’re on a bit of a good run so hopefully we can continue that and go and get the three points.”
The good form which Madden alludes to is the consecutive victories which the Iron have picked up, over Walsall last Saturday in League One and a midweek win over Chesterfield to progress to the second round of the Johnstones Paint Trophy.
Goals from Gary McSheffrey and Hakeeb Adelakun earned Scunthorpe’s first League victory of the season when they beat Walsall 2-1 at Glanford Park on Saturday.
On Tuesday, in the Johnstones Paint Trophy First Round, the Iron recorded another victory by beating Chesterfield 2-0 with another goal from McSheffrey and a first goal for the club for Sean McAllister.
The win over Chesterfield was the second clean sheet of the season for Russ Wilcox’s team, the other came in the Capital One Cup success away at Blackburn Rovers in August.
Madden is relieved that the side have their first clean sheet under the belt and believes all the players are responsible in helping the side defend.
He said: “We should all defend our goal as if our lives depend on it. That’s the message I’ve had drilled in my head. If I’m defending and back there I’ll always throw my body on the line.
“You don’t want to be known as the team that other teams score against all the time so hopefully we can continue the kind of performances we’ve produced recently and teams will have a fight to try and get a goal against us.
“We have confidence in the lads, there are a lot of good defenders in our squad. As a team we’re looking harder to break down because we’re gelling all over the pitch.
“Teams won’t be coming here with as much confidence as they were in the first few games. Hopefully we can continue our form and get some more clean sheets.”
As well as the improved performances in defence, the attacking play from the Iron has been impressive in recent weeks.
In their last three games, the Iron have produced 37 shots compared to the 27 they produced in their first three of the season. On top of that they have also added to their shots on target by hitting 18 in their last three which is a good improvement to the 10 that they managed in the first three games.
Madden is relieved that there has been more forward pressure from his side recently and believes his side possess many attacking threats.
He said: “For any striker if you’re in a team that creates a lot of chances you’re happy. First few league games we didn’t create a lot which is frustrating for a striker but that was when we had hit our bad spell all over the pitch and we’re coming through that and looking dangerous going forward.”
24 year old Madden joined Scunthorpe in 2014 after picking up the League One golden boot with Yeovil Town.
He has already scored twice this season, in the matches with Swindon Town and his old club Yeovil, and he is a tempting 7/1 to score first at Ashton Gate with SkyBet.
Buoyed by recent performances, Madden goes into the weekend’s clash high on confidence, as do the rest of the team. However, the start of the season was a testing period for the squad and Madden is thankful to the role manager Russ Wilcox played in keeping everyone’s spirits up.
He said: “All the boys were a bit down, but Russ kept us going, kept us on our toes and we’re starting to come over that hill and we’re now playing much better."
Bristol City are one of only a handful of teams that remain unbeaten in League One this season so it would be a tremendous achievement if Madden and the rest of the Iron squad can continue their recent good form and bring the three points back to Glanford Park.