Josh Morris may have stolen the headlines with two wonder goals in Scunthorpe’s 2-0 win over Charlton Athletic, but manager Graham Alexander was quick to praise the attributes of the whole squad following a sixth League One win in succession.
Half-time substitute Morris curled home a free-kick on 60 minutes, before adding a stunning right-footed effort (also from 25 yards) three minutes later.
Alexander was delighted with the victory over the Addicks, who started the day in fourth place, and dissected the afternoon with iFollow Iron after the match had finished.
ON THE GAME…
GA: Games are won and lost in both boxes. You have to do the right thing at both ends and show quality at both ends. We got caught on the counter-attack a couple of times in the first-half and they played that well, with Ricky Holmes in behind Josh Magennis. We had to nullify that threat if we could and show better quality on the ball to lessen the number of counter-attacks against us. In the second-half we did that, but we know with all the players’ qualities – Gillo (Matt Gilks), the defender, midfielders, strikers, the lot – that it takes everybody to win the game. As you’ve seen today, on Tuesday and in every game we’ve won, you can pick out individuals but it’s about the group, and they have been superb.
ON JOSH MORRIS’ IMPACT…
GA: I’ve worked with him on-and-off for maybe four years, and I’ve never seen him hit one like that with his right foot. It was an amazing strike. I’ve just watched it four or five times in the video and we all had our heads in our hands – just at the quality of it. The first goal – I wouldn’t say we expect it but we know there’s a great chance because he has fantastic technique. I wasn’t expecting the second one though, and the quality of the strike to hit that top corner was superb. I’ve not seen two better goals, in the same game for the same player, than that for a very long time. The one thing you know about Josh is he’s a confident lad. He came on and gave us that extra energy we needed as a team at a vital time and I thought there were some really good performances out there today. There were an awful lot of players doing a great job for the team – none more so than Duane Holmes, playing for such a long time at right-back. I thought he was superb and was really competitive, positionally fantastic and gave us that threat on the overlap. I’m delighted for everyone because they’ve worked extremely hard all through pre-season and the season itself, and have been getting better and better each month. There is a long way to go so we have to continue on this curve of working hard and putting in quality performances.
"As you’ve seen today, on Tuesday and in every game we’ve won, you can pick out individuals but it’s about the group, and they have been superb."
ON JORDAN CLARKE COMING OFF EARLY IN THE FIRST-HALF…
GA: I think he’s felt his hamstring so I don’t know the severity of it until I speak to the medical staff. Jordan has been in fantastic form of late and part of a really strong defensive unit. To lose him so early was disappointing and we were in a bit of a conundrum regarding who to put on. With how they were playing and what we needed to do, we felt Duane would give us the best chance of doing that and he was quality on both sides of the game.
ON THE TACTICAL BATTLE…
GA: They tried to find the pockets in our shape and we tried to do the same to them. The game was always going to go down to who showed the most quality in the end, and Josh showed that for us with two fantastic strikes. When they had a sniff at goal there was either a block from a Scunthorpe player or safe hands from Gillo. It was a tough game, it’s been a tough week physically. The stats from Bradford were through the roof and we’ve had to replicate that again today. The players are in great shape physically and their approach was fantastic. The boys are in a mood to win day in, day out. There’s a motivation there to continue this run of form. We’re going to be challenged, it will be tough and won’t always go our way but we must keep that belief in what we can produce as a team.
ON THE SQUAD…
GA: There’s a fantastic group of men that are dedicated to their jobs, motivated to do well and who have good quality. The big thing for me is the mental approach and they’re not letting that quality go to waste. They’re using it day-in, day-out to get results, and long may that continue. We know how tough the division is and how hard a whole season is and we won’t get carried away at any stage this season. We have to keep our foot to the floor and make sure we’re motivated in every single game, starting with next week in the FA Cup at Doncaster, to make sure we keep this ball rolling.
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