Scunthorpe manager Russ Wilcox rued the Iron’s decision making in and around the box after leaving the Proact Stadium pointless on the day.
After the 4-1 defeat at Chesterfield, he called on more players to contribute to the goalscoring too after Paddy Madden was on the scoresheet for the third time this season.“We’ve spoken about it before and I keep repeating myself but we’ve got to be more ruthless in the box,” Wilcox told The Iron Player after the Spireites match.
“When the ball comes in we have to stick it in their net.
“(Eoin) Doyle did that for Chesterfield and I don’t want to criticise Paddy (Madden) because he’s the only one who looks like scoring at the moment.
“We need to get more people in and around the box, creating more opportunities and even though people have been crying out for a 4-4-2, I think we have played well in the current system and I didn’t want to change that.
“The five games with that, the results may not have been there but it’s not down to us not being creative enough, it’s down to us without the ball. We’ve got to be so much better without it.”
Wilcox was especially disappointed with the way the Iron conceded, so soon after taking the lead through the former Yeovil striker.
“The goals are disappointing,” he said.
“We were misjudging headers and going for ones we don’t need to when we could just drop off and just staying solid as a unit and sitting behind the ball. We went chasing a little bit when we didn’t need to and I’m very disappointed.”
The hosts were awarded two penalties on the day, firstly when Miguel Llera was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box and Eoin Doyle rattled the resulting spot-kick against the crossbar.
Doyle was soon brought down in the box and the Irishman, who later scored a hat-trick, made no mistake second time around.
“(The decisions) were questionable,” Wilcox added.
“(For the first) You have to look at whether it was ball-to-hand or hand-to-ball. I’ve watched it again and it came off his thigh and that’s where consistency from the officials comes into it. Some would have given it, some wouldn’t.
“The second definitely wasn’t a penalty, it’s a great challenge, he gets the ball. Yes the player goes down after, but it wasn’t a penalty either.
“At 2-1, I thought we still had a chance of getting back into the game and the third goal ended the game for us.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox and Matt Sparrow on The Iron Player.