The Iron are in Capital One Cup action on Tuesday evening against Blackburn Rovers and United manager Russ Wilcox is expecting a tough test against the Lancashire outfit.
The Championship side boast recent Premier League experience and were only relegated from the top flight two seasons ago.Wilcox is predicting a difficult game in store but stated that the squad are looking forward to the challenge ahead.
“It’s a really tough draw for us, whatever team they decide to put out,” he told The Iron Player.
“But if you look at their bench from their opening game against Cardiff, even that was really strong so if they do decide to make changes then it’s still going to be a difficult game, especially being away from home.
“They’re a Championship side and they’ll be looking to get back into the Premier League so we’re looking forward to it.
“I don’t think anybody expects us to go there and turn them over but there are always a few surprises.”
Two players that will miss the cup clash at Ewood Park following the first league game of the campaign on Saturday are the injured Dave Syers and the suspended Marcus Williams, as well as David Mirfin who is still recovering from a knee operation during pre-season.
Wilcox said that a full strength squad will be travelling to the game as United search for a place in the next round of the competition.
He continued: “It’ll be a full strength squad because that’s all we’ve got at the moment.
“We’re down to probably 17 or 18 players at the moment and we’ve lost some key performers from last season.
“Marcus is missing for three games and Dave Syers and Dave Mirfin are also out at the moment so there’s three key players there.
“It’ll be difficult to replace those but it gives opportunities for other people.
“It’s a good chance for us to test ourselves against Championship opposition but we’ve got to improve our ball retention against these better teams and I think it showed on Saturday that if you give the ball away cheaply then you’ll be punished.”
As well as the obvious financial benefits of progressing in cup competitions, it will also give the Iron players chance to obtain that winning feeling.
And breeding confidence through winning games is something Wilcox has placed large importance on.
He added: “Winning breeds confidence and if we can do that then we’ll have progressed into the next round.
“That will hand us another tie which in turn generates more money.
“It will also mean that the players have won and that’s important going into the Preston game.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, and others, on The Iron Player.