After watching United beat Gillingham 3-0 on Saturday afternoon, new manager Mark Robins admits he’s encouraged with what he’s seen so far.
Goals from Paddy Madden, Neal Bishop and Gary McSheffrey ensured the points came back to North Lincolnshire as the Iron picked up their first away league win of the season.Robins travelled down to the MEMS Priestfield Stadium and feels that there are reasons to be optimistic following the hard earned victory.
He said: “I was encouraged with what I saw at Gillingham – I think that’s probably the key word.
“There were some reasons to be optimistic but obviously areas for some work.
“I was encouraged by a lot of the things but there are one or two areas that you pick up straight away and you know you need a bit of work. That will be an ongoing thing.
“The good thing is we’ve got a lot of games left to put things right so there’s no panic stations yet.
“We’ve got to put the right building blocks in place early to make sure that we’re moving in the proper direction and we’ll do that.”
The former Manchester United forward arrives at Glanford Park with the initial aim of gathering enough points to help Scunthorpe climb up the League One table.
Having enjoyed a successful time in management since first taking the reins at Rotherham in 2007, Robins is confident that he has what it takes to turn United’s season around.
“When I was at Rotherham, we had a 17 point deduction and then a 10 point deduction but we ended up building a squad that was capable of getting to the top of the league,” he continued.
“That meant that Barnsley came along and poached me from there when they were towards the bottom of the league and I saved them in the first season and in the second we finished in the highest position that the club had finished in a long time.
“That was a success story in terms of what we could achieve and I later moved on to Coventry who were in a similar situation but we ended up on the verge of the play-offs.
“Again Huddersfield were in a similar league position but the remit was different. The remit there was to save them in the first instance and then to change the playing style in the second so I’ve had varying challenges at different levels and managed them pretty well.
“Last year, Huddersfield finished in a 14 year high position so we’re doing something right.”
The new boss will have a couple of familiar faces to help bed him in to life at the club, having worked with Iron winger Gary McSheffrey during their time at Coventry and chief scout Lee Turnbull at Huddersfield.
After helping to steer all of his four previous clubs from danger, Robins revealed that the one thing still missing from his CV is a managerial promotion and he thinks that Scunthorpe presents him with a chance to do just that.
He added: “I had Gary McSheffrey with me at Coventry and I’ve worked with Lee Turnbull whilst I was at Huddersfield so I do know one or two people here.
“The next step for me is a promotion on my CV and I think this club will give me the opportunity to do that so I’m absolutely looking forward to it.
“The key to me is to get the right staff in place, make sure that we embrace the staff that are already here and help them develop as well as helping the players as much as we possibly can do to deliver the performances we need.”
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