Crewe Alexandra boss Steve Holland felt his team more than matched Scunthorpe for an hour at Glanford Park on Saturday, before United took full advantage against the Railwaymen.

Martyn Woolford opened the scoring just before half-time, then Paul Hayes and Izzy Iriekpen struck in the closing stages to seal victory for the hosts.

Speaking to the press after the game, Holland said: "Scunthorpe are a good side playing with lots of confidence," he said. "For an hour I was pleased with the way we played but, really, we are not scoring enough goals.

"We are also getting punished for too many mistakes that we are making in defence.

"When those mistakes are made you can see our heads drop and that is what is making life difficult for us at the moment.

"Not enough of our players can keep their level of performance going for long enough," noted Holland. "Whether that is physical or mental is arguable? But I can't do any more fitness work with them than I am doing.

"Scunthorpe's second goal was coming and after that the last 20 minutes or so was frankly a bit of a non-event."