Iron right-back Cliff Byrne says that United must tighten up defensively as they look to gather a decent points haul to keep them in promotion contention over the Christmas period.

The former Sunderland man accepts that too many goals have been conceded so far, and sloppy ones at that.

"We've been leaking nearly two goals a game and that's not good enough. That won't win you anything," he told the Scunthorpe Telegraph.

"We know we definitely need to shore up at the back, but it's not something we're panicking about.

"The manager wants us to play good attacking football and we want to do the same because we enjoy it.

"We've just got to make sure we're equally as resilient at the back.

"It's up to us as players to realise what type of game we're actually involved in. If it's going to be a battle, we need to roll our sleeves up. If it's going to be a footballing game, we need to take it to them."