Manager Mark Robins was pleased with side’s endeavours following their opening warm-up victory over Gainsborough Trinity.
The Iron ran out 3-0 winners, with all of the goals coming in the second half and the second set of eleven players to get minutes under their belt – with Andrew Boyce, Luke Williams and Paddy Madden (penalty) getting the goals.“I thought there were some decent performances,” he told The Iron Player HD.
“There was some decent running and some decent football, but I just felt it was a little bit of a sticky surface in the first half and we weren’t playing at the tempo which we should have.
“Having said that, they’re a bunch of young lads at Gainsborough with a team being put together to try and compete in their league and they’ll always raise their game against league opposition. It’s always the case and there were three lads in there who I had in the youth team at Rotherham; Marc Newsham, Jamie Yates and Steven Brogan.
“From our perspective, we’ve got some decent fitness into our legs and it was also a chance to have a look at the players playing collectively and having a run out. We mixed it up a little bit with some young lads in there as well and managed to get three goals along with hitting the post and the bar.
“We could have won by more, there’s no doubt about it – and we could have been ahead in the first half. In the second half, we had a real attacking threat and a real attacking impetus and we managed to get the goals that we were looking for.”
Twenty-two Iron players all got 45 minutes under their belt in the victory, less than 24 hours until the side head to Marbella for a week’s training in the heat, and that fact was a massive positive for the manager.
“I’ve said all along, it’s great to win these games, but it’s not the be-all and end-all,” he continued.
“We always want to win, but we are looking to try and improve the tempo and the movement. There are a lot of positives that we can take from that game. It was important to get a game into us at the end of a really heavy week.
“They’ve got a lot of mileage into their legs so far and hopefully that will stand us in good stead. I’m pleased that we haven’t had any injuries in the game because that’s one of the main things when you are looking to get fitness. In these games there are some full-blooded challenges going in and you know that you want to come through unscathed.
“At this moment in time, everything looks to be okay and everyone has come through it.”
See much more from Mark Robins, Andrew Boyce and Joe Anyon on The Iron Player HD.