United striker Tom Hopper says despite missing out on a place in the League One play-offs, the squad can take a huge amount of momentum to the 2016/2017 season.
Hopper played from the start as the Iron secured a 2-0 victory against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. However, a sixth successive victory wasn’t enough to leapfrog Barnsley into the top six. For Hopper though, things look bright going forward.
The striker told The Iron PlayerHD: “It’s one of those things in football. It was never in our hands, and we’ve done all we could, winning seven out of the last nine games.”
“We’ll take pride from how we’ve finished the season, but effectively it’s over the course of 46 games and we probably only showed from Christmas what we’re really all about.”
“Unfortunately it hasn’t happened for us, but we’ll take a lot of momentum into pre-season, next season, and hopefully we’re up there from the start.”
“All we could do was win, and it was out of our hands from the start. We’ve kept our side of the bargain and we couldn’t have done any more.”
The 22-year-old admitted it’s been a season of personal up and downs, but at the same time revealed his elation at chipping in with a goal against the Blades, taking his overall tally to eight for the campaign.
“It’s nice to grab a goal in a place like this. It’s a nice place to come and also good for me and the team to finish on a high,” he said.
“I’d say it’s been an up and down season for me - a bit like the team. I’d like to think I’ve finished strongly since I’ve come back from my injury and showed glimpses of what I’m about.”
“There’s still a lot more of what I can prove hopefully, so we’ll work hard all summer now and get ready to kick on, so we can show even more what we can do.”
He too expressed his delight and gratitude towards the travelling army of United supporters, who packed out the away section at Bramall Lane.
Hopper highlighted the atmosphere which was generated, and reiterated how pleasing it was to see them all out in such vast numbers.
“They’ve been unbelievable in the last couple of weeks, and also all season they’ve been great too,” he stated.
“These last few weeks they’ve come out, and today was a great atmosphere. We heard them all game, and it almost felt like playing at home. So hats off to them.”
See much more from Tom Hopper, Graham Alexander and Luke Daniels on The Iron PlayerHD.