United boss Graham Alexander says his players are ready for Sunday’s play-off semi-final second leg against Millwall at Glanford Park.
Alexander doesn’t feel the need to place any extra emphasis on the game, but did admit the occasion is sure to be a big one.
Speaking to The Iron PlayerHD, Alexander said: “You put a lot of work in throughout pre-season to be involved in the biggest games at the end of the campaign, and they don’t get much bigger than this game coming up.
“I can only speak for my players, but they’ve worked extremely hard to get to this point, and we have to work extremely hard again.
“It’s no different performance wise, but of course the prize at stake is massive, and we have to commit to every minute of the game like we have done all season.
“When you break it all down, it’s not that different from any other game this season. We’ve gone out to win every game, and we’ll be doing the same again.”
Assessing the challenge awaiting the hosts, the Scunthorpe manager states he’s anticipating another tough battle, after Thursday night’s tight contest.
“They’re a good team, we saw that, and we saw that a month ago,” he stated.
“We know of their qualities, we know what they’ll bring to the table, and they know of ours. It’s two teams that respect each other, but want to beat each other.
“It’ll be a competitive game I expect, because of the nature of both teams.”
Glanford Park is expected to be close to capacity for the encounter, and Alexander declared that continued backing from the home faithful is crucial.
“It’s going to be a full house I expect, with a great atmosphere, and It’ll be two good teams trying to win the game,” Alexander stated.
“Every time we’ve had a bumper crowd here, the team has responded to that, the crowd have, and it’s been really positive.
“It’s a fantastic environment here when it’s full, because it’s so close, is really atmospheric. It helps the team.”
He also had good news with regards to Stephen Dawson, who was forced off at the Den after suffering an injury to his hand.
However, Alexander doesn’t believe the damage is too severe, but revealed the Iron captain will be assessed in the lead-up to the match.
“It looked really bad at first, but thankfully it was superficial. There’s no bone or ligament damage to his wrist - it’s all bruising,” he revealed.
“I don’t envisage any major problems, and I expect him to be available to be picked.
“It was a sore one, you could see the pain he was in when he came off. It looked worse than what it actually was, so we’re delighted with that news.”
See much more from Graham Alexander and Conor Townsend on The Iron PlayerHD.