The arrival of new Iron manager Mark Robins has given the whole squad an opportunity to claim their place in the side according to midfielder Neal Bishop.
Robins was unveiled as manager on Monday afternoon and has taken his first training sessions with his new side this week.Bishop, who scored in last weekend’s 3-0 victory away at Gillingham, believes all the players now have an opportunity to make an impression on their new boss.
He told The Iron Player: “Obviously there’s a lift. When a new manager comes in everyone wants to impress. The lads that have maybe been left out or felt that they were out of favour under the former regime can now come back in and try and prove themselves and get in the first team.
“You look forward to every game when a new manager comes in. You want to get out there and show what you can do and everyone starts with a clean slate. The manager says it’s day one for the season, whatever has gone has gone. It’s all about getting in the team for Saturday and it was very competitive on the training ground this week and it’s good to see.
“He’s been around and done his research. He’s watched DVD’s on us and seen previous performances and goals we’ve been giving away so showed us certain situations in training which obviously showed he’s done his homework on us.
“It’s been good, it’s been lively. Obviously they (the new management team) are bringing their ideas in and the training has been sharp. He didn’t talk long this morning, he just gathered us all together and ha has let us know what he expects.
“He’s not asking us to do things we can’t do, he’s asking us to do the basics and to do the basics well. If we can all do that, then hopefully we can go on a positive run.
“He’s straight talking and that’s what we want. If you fall below the standards you know you won’t play, it’s as simple as that.”
The new management team, which has welcomed Ned Kelly as Robin’s assistant, take charge following an Iron win last weekend.
Paddy Madden, Gary McSheffrey and Bishop were all on target at the Priestfield Stadium to earn Scunthorpe’s first away victory of their League One campaign.
A first half red card for Gillingham captain Doug Loft, for a two footed tackle on Luke O’Neill, forced the home side to play just under an hour with ten men, which Bishop and his team mates took full advantage of.
Madden opened the scoring in the first half before Bishop headed in the second of the game mid-way through the second half. It was Bishop’s second goal for the club to help secure the win, which was rounded off by McSheffrey in additional time.
Goalscorer Bishop said: “It was good to get that win on Saturday because Gillingham is a difficult place to go. Obviously the sending off helped but I thought we were in control of it before then as we’d started the game well and we were dominating possession.
“If you look around we’ve got goals in the team. Sheffs (Gary McSheffrey) has scored goals at the highest level, obviously Paddy (Paddy Madden), and Rory’s (Rory Fallon) come in and notched a couple. Myself and the other midfielders need to add a few more along the way. But we know the problem hasn’t been scoring goals.
“I’ve got a total in my head I’d like to get to but it’s not about individuals, the most important thing is the team. We proved that on Saturday, working hard for each other, getting the positive result and we kept a clean sheet.”
The Iron defence and on loan goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik will be hoping to make it back to back clean sheets this Saturday, when Mark Robins takes charge of his first match for the Iron.
Colchester United are the visitors at Glanford Park and with only two points separating the two sides in the Sky Bet League One table, it is an opportunity for Scunthorpe to leapfrog their opponents and move out of the relegation zone.
Tony Humes’ side won their first home game of the campaign last weekend when they beat Fleetwood Town 2-1 at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.
With victories over Coventry, Chesterfield and Walsall at Glanford Park so far this season, Bishop believes that building a good foundation in the club’s home matches is exactly what needs to happen this season.
“Any successful team has a good home record. This is our base this season and the better teams pick up their points at home," he said.
"It is a lovely pitch but we need to make this a difficult place to come for teams and we need to get on top and impose ourselves with our fans behind us.
"We want to play some good, attacking football, whilst obviously keeping the back door closed, but the supporters are crying out for some good, attacking football with real tempo to it and that’s exactly how the new manager wants us to play.
"Hopefully we can deliver that on Saturday.
“Back to back wins are vital, especially at this level where everyone beats everyone. If you can get two, three or four wins back to back the turnaround can be enormous.
"That’s where we’ve let ourselves down, we’ve had good wins but never backed them up. The three points at Gillingham was great but it’s gone and it’s Colchester we need to focus on now. We have three games coming up next week and if we can get some positive results we can start finally building some momentum.
“It’s your back four and goalkeeper that get blamed for conceding goals but we know it’s a team thing. Clean sheets bring confidence; we know we’ve always got goals in the team so it’s just about tightening it up at the other end.”
As there are only five points separating the Iron and ten other sides in League One, a win at Glanford Park this Saturday could see Mark Robin’s new side take a giant leap up the table.
It is Robins' first match as Scunthorpe United manager, and Bishop and his team mates will be aiming to deliver their new boss a winning start to his Iron career when they walk out onto the Glanford Park turf on Saturday afternoon.
See much more from Neal Bishop, Mark Robins and Luke O'Neill on The Iron Player.