Isaiah Osbourne believes quality shone through during the Iron’s 2-2 with Fleetwood Town on Tuesday night.
Speaking to The Iron Player after the game, Osbourne believes both clubs impressed with their displays during the 90 minutes, and feels United can take confidence from the game going into the away match at Crewe on Saturday.Osbourne said: “It was a good footballing game to be honest. Both sides wanted to win and basically I thought we were unlucky to not get the three points.”
United were behind from the third minute after Jamie Proctor nodded the Cod Army into the lead, before Gary McSheffrey slammed home right before the half time whistle went, and Osbourne spoke about the reaction to going a goal down so early, and the importance of getting the goal just before the interval.
Osbourne commented: “Well firstly I didn’t think it was a free-kick, but once we conceded I thought it took about 10 minutes to actually get us going, and in the last 35 minutes of the first half we started to play our normal game.
"It was massive - nothing more than to simply get our confidence up. We were playing well and I thought we deserved it.”
The team-talk at half time from Mark Robins may have been different if the team were still chasing the game rather than on level terms, but Osbourne remarked that the manager didn’t have much to say after the Iron impressed with numerous passages of eye-catching football.
“I think the goal will have changed it a bit, but to be honest he didn’t really have a lot to say before or after the game because of how we performed” he said.
“Once we came in to the dressing room he told us he didn’t have much to say.”
Scunthorpe again found themselves trailing after Josh Morris drilled home from distance to restore Graham Alexander’s side's lead, but Osbourne was delighted that this time it only took three minutes to respond on this occasion.
He told us: “It was definitely good to respond so quickly.
“Obviously with Georgie getting the goal, I think they scored against the run of play as we were playing well and all of a sudden they scored. It was a good goal to be fair to them.”
The Iron avoided defeat in their first away game since losing their unbeaten streak on the road that stretched back to late September, and Osbourne believes taking the conditions in to account that the point was definitely a bonus to what was always going to be a difficult game away from Glanford Park.
Osbourne said: “It’s a good point because we are away from home, and any points you can get away from home is a good point. Obviously we are still a little bit disappointed it ended in a draw but we’ll take it.
“I think some of the long balls were very hard to judge and the conditions did play a little part, however on the other hand we did play with the conditions in the second half in particular.”
Matchday captain Neal Bishop served his second and final game suspension for receiving 10 yellow cards, and Osbourne briefly spoke about playing without him in the side, with the regular midfield trio of himself, Bishop and Liam O’Neil momentarily broken up, and his place in the side may prove difficult to wrestle back with the form of loanee George Evans.
Osbourne said: “Obviously Bish is an important player to our team as he is our captain, but I believe without him I think we still have the players that can go out there and win the game.”
Osbourne set up both of the Scunthorpe goals during the game as he shone in the middle of the Iron's midfield, but he admitted that he isn’t the sort that focus’ too much on his goals and assists count.
Osbourne rounded off saying: “Well I got two assists today which I’m very happy about.
"It’s a good stat for one game but I’m not really someone who looks at things like that in particular.
“I like to just go out and play, however I’ll try and score a couple of goals before the end of the season, but I don’t really look at my stats.”
See much more from Isaiah Osbourne, Mark Robins and George Evans on The Iron Player.