Iron midfielder Dave Syers has enjoyed two successive promotions, albeit with two different clubs.
This promotion-winning campaign ranks as one of the highlights of his career so far and he explains to our official Promotion book that those early moments of uncertainty, unaware of how Fleetwood had got on, after the Exeter match will live long in his memory.What were the emotions like following the match at Exeter?
DS: It will come as no surprise to fans that everything was a little bit mixed after the game. The bottom line is that it’s always a great feeling to gain promotion. There is no better feeling than getting to the end of the season and knowing that you achievement has been accomplished. It was a very strange day to get promotion especially after the way the game finished and we had the disappointment of not performing in the match. Then we had to have the five minute wait to see what the score was in the Fleetwood match.
Talk us through those five minutes following the conclusion of our game at Exeter and then having to wait for the Fleetwood result to come through?
DS: It was freezing for all as we waited out there as the adrenaline died down and because we had been involved in so many late twists and turns this season we half expected something to come through that would completely ruin our day. However, the luck was on our side for once. I think it was the last result of the day to come through so it was a strange wait and equally it was strange as to how quickly the result go put behind us. In the end we lost the game, that didn’t matter because everything relied on Fleetwood dropping points. There was no game debrief thankfully, but the overriding emotion had to be the relief that we had been promoted.
The celebrations on the team coach were quite muted. Is that how you expected the promotion celebrations to go?
DS: As we were so far away from Scunthorpe it was always going to be tough to celebrate properly. We didn’t want to plan anything because it was more important to concentrate on the game and that is what we had to do. We could have said something the week before but we didn’t want to go through every game and plan something for every different scenario. As a team we all said, first and foremost we need to get promoted then once that had been achieved the celebrations would take care of themselves.
That 28 game unbeaten record was a phenomenal achievement, nobody could have ever anticipated that could they?
DS: It wasn’t something we ever saw coming. When Russ took over we were dealing only in the short term. He was looking after us on a game to game basis. We had a fantastic first week under Russ getting nine points from the three games and things just spiralled on from there. 28 games is a bit ridiculous really and it is something that I can never envisage myself repeating during my career. It’s always something that I’ll be very proud of and it is only worth talking about it once you’ve achieved your main goal.
This is your second successive promotion, obviously with two separate clubs. How does this one compare to promotion from League One with Doncaster last season?
DS: This season I came here on loan initially then signed permanently in January everything has just gone so well. Ever since I signed it had always been the aim to get promotion while last season at Doncaster came as quite a surprise to me as I was only ever thinking about establishing myself in the first team. This season under Russ it was a lot more targeted and we always had promotion as our main achievement. We completed what we set out to achieve this season and that is very pleasing.
Since you joined the Iron you have been ever present in the side, that’s some achievement to be selected for every game you’re available for?
DS: I was in the side a lot at Doncaster last season then I got injured in the February which kept me out of the equation until the last couple of games of the season. When I wasn’t getting selected this season for Doncaster I wanted to play some games and to be selected for every game I was eligible to play here for Scunthorpe was a great feeling. Since I signed in October I only missed two games and they were the Grimsby ones in the FA Cup because Doncaster didn’t want me to play in that so I could have a run out for them in the third round.