Rory McArdle got his first goal in a Scunthorpe United shirt on Saturday as his side beat MK Dons 2-0.
The 30-year-old centre-back has been wanting to chip in with goals since the start of the season and believes that the defence as a whole are doing a good job in attacking situations.
After extending the team's clean sheet and win record to three consecutive games, McArdle is confident that United's momentum can help them in their upcoming fixture against play-off rivals Plymouth Argyle.
The Iron captain discussed his goal, the upcoming Tuesday night game and the travelling supporters in an interview with iFollow Iron.
ON HIS FIRST GOAL IN AN IRON SHIRT…
RM: First and foremost, it is just nice to get that goal as it is important that everyone chips in. I haven’t chipped in so far this year so it was good to get one on Saturday. When we have a set-piece we always know that the delivery is going to be spot on. It is just about making the right runs and trying to get the timing right. I ran to the front post, Haks (Hakeeb Adelakun) put a good ball into the box and I managed to get enough on it to glance it in.
ON HOW MUCH OF A RELIEF HIS GOAL WAS…
RM: It is a bit. You always set yourself targets at the start of the season to try and help out. In terms of the defence as a whole, there were other chances in the game like when Jordan (Clarke) had a good chance that they cleared well. The fact that we are getting in the right positions is positive. It would be a little bit more disappointing if we were getting the set-pieces, free-kicks and nothing was happening. Therefore, from our point of view we are happy with how the set-pieces are going.
ON HOW IT FELT TO CELEBRATE WITH THE TRAVELLING SUPPORTERS…
RM: It was great. For the last three or four weeks we seem to have had quite a few trips. Again, Saturday wasn’t one that’s just down the road. You have got to give massive credit to everyone who made the effort to come down, paid their money to get their ticket, travel and get food. It does add up and from our point of view it is important that we give them something to cheer about. Therefore, when they are going back up the road, they are happy and everyone is looking forward to the next week.
ON HOW GOOD IT WAS TO OVERCOME A POSSIBLE BANANA SKIN IN MK DONS…
RM: You look at their team and they have some good players. Therefore, you know that if you’re not at it, you are going to get punished. It was important that we started the game well. We didn’t give them any incentive to try and get a foothold in the game. We were clinical and we took our two goals. A third goal might have been nice just to put the game to bed but I thought that we were resolute, organised and we saw the game out.
ON HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE ANOTHER CLEAN SHEET AND WIN GIVES THE TEAM…
RM: It’s all about momentum. I think that the timing of it has been good and the performance levels have been good. For the last few weeks there have been good performances and a couple of games have been a bit scrappy but we have still taken something from those games. As a result, we are happy. We know that we aren’t going to play well for the full 90 minutes of every game so it’s important that if we do have a bit of a sticky patch or a tricky spell in the game then we can manage that.
ON HOW BIG TUESDAY’S CLASH WITH PLYMOUTH WILL BE…
RM: The game was always going to be a big one in regards to the play-offs but first and foremost we have to take care of our business. We did that and we can’t affect the other results. We just have to look after ourselves. Tuesday was always going to be a big game and I don’t think that anything has changed.
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