Iron manager Russ Wilcox admitted his disappointment following the 2-0 defeat against Fleetwood Town on Tuesday evening.
Second half goals from Jamie Proctor and Gareth Evans handed Graham Alexander’s side all three points on a rainy night at Glanford Park.But Wilcox also highlighted the positive aspects of United’s display and was pleased to see a fully committed performance out on the pitch.
He told The Iron Player: “It’s disappointing because it’s another football match we’ve lost.
“But I was looking for a response from the players. I was looking for a fully committed performance with energy and I thought we gave that.
“We had some really good play at times but we’re just not quite good enough in both boxes at the moment which is disappointing.
“I was pleased with a lot of aspects of our play but disappointed with the goals we conceded.
“We can’t keep shipping goals. Our first port of call has to be to keep a clean sheet and we spoke about that before the game so that’s what we need to work on.”
The manager made six changes to the team that started against Preston on Saturday in a bid to kick-start the club’s league campaign.
And Wilcox stated that the key to turning the club’s fortunes around will be to score the first goal in the games they play, as was the case in the Capital One Cup clash at Blackburn last week.
“There were lots of changes in personnel tonight and I think if you look at the second goal tonight, Bobby (Olejnik) has stepped through the door at five o’clock and if he’d had a couple of training sessions with us
he’d understand more how we play,” Wilcox continued.
“It’s been difficult but we’re not making excuses.
“We haven’t got the consistency within the squad but we’ve got to just keep working hard and hopefully we’ll turn it around.
“We spoke a lot about the importance of getting the first goal last season and it’s massive.
“We did it 30 times last year and the only time we’ve done it this season, at Blackburn, we’ve won.
“I was pleased with the reaction of the players after we conceded the first goal because that was disappointing on Saturday with the manner of how we reacted to Preston’s first goal.
“I can’t fault the players for their attitude and their endeavour.”
Fleetwood’s win means they have now won all three of their opening League One matches this season and Wilcox felt they made it difficult for the Iron players to express themselves.
And the boss gave credit to the way the visitors executed their game plan during the game.
He added: “Fleetwood have now won three league games on the spin and they made it difficult for us.
“They set up with two banks of four who sat deep and they tried to hit us on the counter attack.
“Their game plan was good and we’ve got to combat that.
“We need to stop the ball coming in our box though and make the first contact.
“That ball in for their second goal would have been headed away 99 times out of 100 last season and it’s about making that first contact.
“There were some good bits and there were some bad bits but in a nutshell we’ve not defended two set plays well and that has cost us the game.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, and others, on The Iron Player.