Ahead of this weekend’s visit to Oldham Athletic, Iron boss Russ Wilcox has called on everyone to stick together and be united.
Scunthorpe travel to Boundary Park looking for their first away triumph since the 1-0 Capital One Cup success at Blackburn against an Oldham side that are unbeaten in their last six games.Wilcox knows a tough test lies in store but has challenged his players to get back to the level of performance shown when Coventry travelled to North Lincolnshire last week.
“They’re in good form. They’re unbeaten in six and they’ve kept three clean sheets in their last three home games so it will be a really tough match,” he told The Iron Player.
“We’ve got to get back to where we were against Coventry and we’ve certainly got to tighten up at the back so we’re always working on ways to try and improve and move forward.
“It’s a really difficult period for us but we have to stay together and stay united, I think that’s the key.
“It’s Scunthorpe United by name but let’s be united as a group and get through this period.
“We’re hot and cold which is disappointing. We need more consistency and that’s what we’re working to try and do.”
With a whole host of injuries picked up already, just nine games into the 2014-15 league season, Wilcox has had to contend with a number of selection problems.
And he’s recently been given another one after Miguel Llera picked up his fifth booking of the campaign on Saturday against Leyton Orient, meaning that a new centre-back will need to be drafted in against Lee Johnson’s men.
He continued: “There’s options there. There’s obviously Andrew Boyce and I’ve also got Callum Howe.
“They’re both inexperienced but you only get experience by playing games.
“We’ve done it before at this football club many years ago when we threw Andy Butler in as a young player and it was sort of a sink or swim situation and that might be the case this weekend for either Andrew or Callum.”
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Leyton Orient ended the club’s three match winning run at Glanford Park as goals from Scott Cuthbert and Jobi McAnuff ensured the O’s went back down to the capital with all three points.
Wilcox admitted he’d love nothing more than to bounce back from the disappointment of that game against the Latics and hopes that his Iron side are now entering a period where they can start to rise up the league.
“It’s been totally different from last season. The lads have been used to that high and now it’s getting used to this difficult period and they’re doing that,” he added.
“I think we showed in the Coventry game what we’re about and we need to produce more performances of that nature if we are to pick up results.
“Six or seven out of our opening nine league games have been against teams in the top half of the table and hopefully this is a period now where we can have a right go at it and pick up some points.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, and others, on The Iron Player.