Russ Wilcox was full of praise for his whole team after seeing out a 2-0 win at Plymouth, but he was keen to highlight the importance of two men in particular.
The first was the goalscorer of the opening goal, our January permanent signing Dave Syers, who has scored five goals in his last six appearances for the club.“Our first was terrific and no surprise our ‘Johnny on the spot’, Dave Syers, was there to put it away,” he told The Iron Player.
“That’s ten for the season for him and he has an unbelievable knack of being in the right area at the right time.”
Syers was given the freedom to get forward after Wilcox chose to bring Sean McAllister back into the fold after he missed the home draw with Southend on Tuesday.
He said: “It was in my thoughts to bring Sean back into the side, especially away from home, to hold and protect like he has for us all season.
“Matty Sparrow was outstanding on Tuesday and i was disappointed to leave him out.
"He’s been chomping at the bit for a few weeks now, training extremely hard and he got his start and a goal so that’s the tough side of management- to sit down with him and tell him I’ve chose to make the change.
“But at the end of the day I have to make those strong decisions and I think I may have got that one right.”
The Iron sealed the win with a second goal late on as the game entered stoppage time and Hakeeb Adelakun was unfortunate not to be given the goal after brilliant build-up play.
Adelakun’s low shot found the net after the ball hit the upright and bounced off goalkeeper Jake Cole. It was deemed an own goal, denying the young Iron his third goal of the season.
He stated: “He did a great turn on the edge of the box and struck it well and it’s a shame Hakeeb wasn’t given it. I don’t think it was down to luck that it went in as it was great play by Hakeeb.
“But nevertheless, it was a big relief to get the goal as we know what has happened in the last few weeks.
“They made three substitutions and took the game to us and Marvin Morgan came on, who’s 6ft 4in and maybe I should have brought Luke Waterfall earlier to deal with him, but we stayed strong and saw it out.”
The Iron boss also praised Paul Hayes’ impact from the bench, before reiterating it wasn’t about individual performances.
“I brought him on at 0-0 and I thought it was a game made for a player like Paul-with Plymouth sitting deep, we had to try play in between the lines and get Hayesy on the ball and between their back three and midfield four," he stated.
“He did that okay and he retains the ball really well and that gives us the option of Sam (Winnall) playing off the shoulder, but at the end of the day, it is more about the group than individuals.
“We have to look at this group’s achievement over the last 21 games, we’ve gone unbeaten.
“There’s draws in there but it doesn’t matter, it’s still unbeaten and everybody should be proud of these players coming out and wearing that shirt and the new record will take some beating.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, Dave Syers, Sean McAllister and Paul Hayes on The Iron Player.