Iron Academy graduate Curtis Bateson says he was pleased to have stored some valuable game time as United played out their first pre-season fixture of the summer.
Scunthorpe beat local non-league side Bottesford Town 3-1 at Birch Park with goals from Sam Winnall and a Paddy Madden brace, whilst former Iron youth trainee Tom Johnson scored for the hosts.Bateson was part of the second half team and said it’s nice to be back playing again.
“It’s good to be back,” he told The Iron Player.
“We’ve had ten weeks off or so from not playing games so it’s nice to be back out on the field playing some football.
“I was due to just be a substitute for the second half but Terry (Hawkridge) pulled out at the last minute so I was obviously pleased to get more game time.
“I think it went well and if we were a bit more prolific in front of goal then it could have been a few more.”
Bateson praised the efforts of the Bottesford players and said they made it tough for United to play.
But he emphasised that the main priority at the moment is to get minutes under the belt and prepare for the first league game of the season in August.
He continued: “To be fair to Bottesford, they put a good game on.
“But the main thing at the minute is just to get minutes under your belt and be ready for the first game of the season.
“Training has been tough over the last couple of weeks. We’ve done some running but I feel like I’m settling in well, I feel like I’m keeping up with the standard and hopefully I can kick on.”
The youngster travelled with the rest of the squad down to Champneys last week for pre-season training and bonding sessions and admitted that it was difficult for the squad at times but feels that the trip away went well.
“We had a double session on Saturday, a double session on Sunday and then we had a really hard session on the Monday before we came home but it was good.
“Me and the other new lads into the team had to do our initiations and sing in front of the rest of the team so it was all good.”
See much more from Curtis Bateson, Paddy Madden and Russ Wilcox on The Iron Player.