United manager Russ Wilcox was disappointed to see his side come away without anything to show from their 3-2 defeat to Oldham Athletic.
Scunthorpe twice led through goals from two players making their first starts for the club – Andrew Boyce and Rory Fallon respectively – before substitute Daniel Philliskirk turned the match on it’s head in the second half. Former Iron striker Jonathan Forte had restored parity at 1-1.“I’m really disappointed,” he told The Iron Player.
“To be 2-1 up at half time and then to go and lose the game is disappointing. We didn’t manage the second half well enough. But like I just said on the radio, there are reasons why.
“I’ve never known a period like it at a football club – I feel like all we’ve done this week is fire fighting.
“Three players today have had to come in and make their full Scunthorpe debuts and they’ve had to play at League One speed. That showed in the end and they began to get leggy towards the end."
Wilcox made five changes going into the fixture, with Boyce and Shaun Brisley coming in for their first starts in the defence, while Neal Bishop, Jennison Myrie- Williams and Fallon all were included.
“Oldham have got a settled team, which they’ve played for most of the season so far and that’s played a key part in the game,” he continued.
“I’m still disappointed with the goals which we conceded, as we always are. We can do things better in different areas of the pitch and we didn’t do that, so to come away with a 3-2 defeat after being 2-1 up is disappointing.
“We’ve got to take the positives out of that. We’ve scored from a corner, which we’ve worked on in the last two days. We knew we’d be a threat from that as we were such a big side and that’s the biggest side that I’ve put out since I’ve been in charge.
“It was a terrific ball from McSheffrey and a great header from Andrew Boyce. We knew that could give us a chance to win the game today. That’s why we were so disappointed with their third goal as it came from a set piece.
“We’ve not made the first or second ball and that’s why we’ve paid today.”
He added: “What we do is we battle on, we stay together. I’ve got a good group in there who are working really hard. We’ll do that until we turn this corner.”
See much more from Russ Wilcox, Rory Fallon and Andrew Boyce on The Iron Player.