Iron striker Tom Hopper stated the importance of a game plan, after the home victory over Swindon Town at the weekend.
Scunthorpe came from a goal down to beat promotion hopefuls Swindon Town 3-1 at Glanford Park, a morale boosting win after the disappointed of narrowly missing out on all three points at the Ricoh Arena on Tuesday during the 1-1 draw with Coventry City.Hopper told The Iron Player: “It was a great team performance, a fully deserved win.
"First half we tried to work them out and we had a better game plan in the end that we put into effect pretty well.
"In the second half we really did capitalise on everything we set out to do, and obviously managed to take three points.”
Michael Smith’s speculative effort from the corner of the box saw the Wiltshire club head to the dressing room all smiles with their 1-0 half time lead, but Hopper believes being a goal down gave them the freedom to play their style of football without the feeling of pressure of playing a game at 0-0.
Hopper stated: “We probably just stood off them those extra couple of yards in the first half, but we went out there and got in their faces more in the second half.
"We were more of the front foot as we had nothing to lose being 1-0 down coming out and we just went for it, and it really paid off.”
Robins went for a three-pronged attack with Hopper, Paddy Madden and Kevin van Veen, but despite not registering his name on the score-sheet this week, he was chuffed for his fellow strikers for grabbing important personal goals during the game.
Hopper said: “I was very pleased for Paddy to get a goal again because he’s had a few games without a goal, and I was also delighted for Kevin for getting off to a scoring start.
"I was out on the left which I didn’t mind doing at all."
“It was more of a strategic role I played today to counteract the way they played.
"It was a team game, and everyone did their jobs in the end, with the resulting showing it all paid off.”
It is four points from a possible nine from the three games against the league’s top sides, Bristol City, MK Dons and Swindon played at Glanford Park, and despite the decent points tally, the performances have been increasingly impressive as the weeks have gone by.
Hopper added: “Swindon are probably one of the best sides in the league and we probably made them look ordinary at times, which goes to show the performances we can put in.
If we can keep on doing that, then long may it continue.”
Finally, with Chesterfield to come on Tuesday night, the Iron play their fourth game of the month, with another four to go before they see February out. The plethora of games may prove strenuous on the side, however Hopper looks at it on the bright side, more games to score goals, earn points and catch up with the sides above.
Hopper stated: “The games are coming thick and fast this month so we’ll have to recover right, get prepared for Chesterfield and go again.
"We’ve still got a couple of games in hand over some teams so it’s important we start picking up these points now, turning draws in to wins and losses in to draws.”
See much more from Tom Hopper on The Iron Player.