Gary McSheffrey produced another impressive display for the Iron on Tuesday evening, helping his side to a hard-fought 2-1 victory against Coventry.
The midfielder, who was captaining the Iron against his former club, described how much of a big result this was for the squad.“It’s great to be back to winning ways and it was a huge win for the boys,” he said.
“Coming back from being 1-0 down with both strikers scoring is a quality confidence boost for the team and hopefully we can take this into Saturday’s game.”
Scunthorpe were able to come back from being 1-0 down early in the first half and McSheffrey stressed how important it was that heads did not drop, especially not after the disappointing 4-1 defeat to Chesterfield.
He said: “Their goal was the first proper opportunity of the game so it was disappointing to concede. However, we were playing well up until then and I always felt we’d get back into it and the game changed after the sending off.”
Reda Johnson was given a straight red card for an off the ball incident with Lyle Taylor in the first half. This, according to McSheffrey, “allowed the team to get on the ball more and camp in Coventry’s half.”
“The key was to keep the ball moving,” said the former Sky Blues man. “Coventry are a quality team so even when they were reduced to ten men they kept the ball well and made it difficult.
“When you get a team down to ten men you just need to be patient and eventually something will open up. We had to play in a professional manner this evening and make sure we won the game as the sending off gave us a great opportunity.”
The victory put an end to Coventry’s unbeaten run, which would have been extended to eight had they got a result at Glanford Park. McSheffrey decided to concentrate more on the victory as opposed to the occasion of playing against a former team.
“It was just nice to get a win under our belts,” he said. “Everyone contributed and played well, showing that when we don’t make mistakes we can win football matches.
“A lot of the goals we’ve conceded have occurred due to lapses in concentration but we had our heads on tonight and we got our rewards. The defence was magnificent in the last ten minutes, getting their heads on everything.”
This was the claret and blue’s third successive home win and the 32-year-old had plenty of praise for the support shown.
He told the Iron Player: “We’ve got to try and make this place horrible to come to and, in general, the fans have been great. Tonight was a massive result for us as Coventry are certainly going to be up there come the end of the season.”