Iron manager Graham Alexander believes his side more than matched Bradford City, despite slipping to a narrow defeat on Saturday afternoon.
Substitute Steven Davies swept home a 67th minute winner for the hosts, which incidentally was the first goal United have conceded since Alexander’s tenure began.
Quick to praise his squad’s work rate, the manager told
The Iron PlayerHD: “It’s fine margins. One long throw has separated the two teams and unfortunately it went the way of the opposition.
“There’s a lot of tired bodies in there, they put themselves through the mill and worked extremely hard against a very competitive and strong team.
“When you come here, you know what the game is going to be about and I thought we more than matched them on the physical side of it.
“If we’d have taken a couple of our opportunities in the first half then it might have been a different result but you can’t talk about ifs and buts.
“It’s about reality and they got the goal but if we’d have scored first then I think we’d have probably won the game.”
The Iron went close to breaking the deadlock themselves on a handful of occasions in the opening period, with Paddy Madden seeing one effort saved and another cleared off the line.
Also pleased with the shift put in from a defensive point of view against one of the division’s play-off hopefuls, Alexander was just frustrated that the winning moment proved to come for the home side in what was a fiercely fought fixture.
“Hakeeb (Adelakun) was fantastic and it was a great break that saw Paddy hit the target,” he continued.
“That’s the most you can ask for and the goalkeeper has made a good save.
“It was a great bit of skill from Hakeeb to get some space and we had our opportunities in the first half particularly.
“The defenders have been up against a physical battle and they were always going to have to stick their head in where it hurts and compete and I thought they all did that.
“They did everything they could apart from that one slip in concentration. The lad had just come on so that was disappointing but we knew it was going to be a tough game and that’s what it turned out to be.”
Keen to ensure United win as many games as possible between now and the end of the season, Alexander insisted the team have six massive games ahead.
He added: “Whatever the league table says, we’ve got six massive games to compete in and put on performances for people.
“We won’t let anything slide. I’m not having that and the players won’t want that anyway because they’re a great group.
“We’ve got to make sure we win as many games as possible between now and the end of the season to finish strongly.”
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