Iron manager Graham Alexander felt his side deserved more from their performance in the 2-0 home loss to Fleetwood.
Devante Cole’s close range finish just before half-time was followed up by a Bobby Grant goal late on as the Cod Army collected all three points at Glanford Park.
United are still well placed in the League One promotion race and Alexander, whilst disappointed with the result, insisted there were plenty of positives to take away from the fixture.
He told The Iron PlayerHD: “Performance wise, there are plenty of positives to take.
“We’re disappointed with the result and we don’t think we deserved to get beat today, without a doubt.
“Performance wise, that’s everything we’ve been asking of the players and I thought they produced.
“They showed great courage, getting on the ball, passing, working hard for each other and we just needed to take one of the opportunities we created.
“I thought we were the dominant team today and sometimes you just need things to go for you.”
The display was certainly a plus point coming out of the Cod Army contest, with Scunthorpe on top for large periods and enjoying much more of the attacking impetus.
Keen to stress that the results will come if his squad can maintain those level of performances, Alexander feels it’s only a matter of time before the team return to winning ways.
“We gave ourselves a chance of winning today, that was the biggest thing,” he continued.
“We haven’t played well enough to win games recently, there’s no hiding from that, but we gave ourselves a chance today and I felt we should have won the game.
“In the second-half I think they only had that one shot which they can do when they’re the away team and 1-0 up.
“If we play like that between now and the end of the season then we’ll be fine because we’ll win games with those sort of performances.
“We have to take the slaps in the face at the moment but I’m really pleased with how the players performed.”
The team were roared on by 5,541 spectators and Alexander stressed that fans have a big part to play as United continue with their Championship push.
Matt Crooks made his first home start in front of that vocal support and received high praise from the manager following his engine room effort.
He added: “That’s what we need between now and the end of the season, we need that backing.
“The players feel the difference when it’s like that and the fans get behind us.
“We need this club to fight against all the giants we’re up against in this division and show a strong front to win games.
“If we have that performance on the pitch then we’ll get back to winning ways really soon.
“I thought he (Crooks) was superb. He was the biggest difference in the two teams, he controlled the game and was always an outlet for us.
“He was composed in possession and made the right decisions – that’s the courage we need to play with.
“All the players did that today and we’ve got to keep it up.”