Captain Rory McArdle was pleased with the response and the team performance to earn a 2-2 draw against Barnsley on Saturday.
Speaking to iFollow Iron about the positive reaction on the pitch, he said: “Before the game that’s all everybody spoke about, so we could go out there and build on everything that had happened this week. We had to make sure we came out of the traps to start well and we stuck together to put in a good performance.
“It’s obviously still disappointing to concede two goals after being 2-0 up but equally everybody has to be happy with that reaction, especially when we had to dig in during the second half.”
The Iron went two goals up, but two quickfire goals from the away side made sure the match ended 2-2.
McArdle said a share of the spoils was fair given the balance of play: “It probably was a fair result. They will look back at the second half and think they dominated most of the ball but equally, we still had a number of opportunities.
“Lundy (Matthew Lund) had his chance and we broke through a number of times and put some good crosses in, so we definitely threatened on the counter attack. It’s been a tough week, so it was all about the reaction today and I think we got that."
Josh Morris put United ahead from the penalty spot after eight minutes when Andy Dales was fouled in the area. Cameron Burgess then doubled the Iron’s advantage in the second half when he headed in a George Thomas free-kick.
Talking about the goals, the captain said: “I thought Dalesy did great to get the penalty and I don’t think there were any doubts in that. Everyone knows Josh is quality and whenever there is a penalty I always fancy him to score, he stuck it in brilliantly.
“For the second goal, the set piece was great from George, he always puts a good ball in and when the delivery is as good as that, it just needs a touch. Credit to Cam, he’s got there and got his head on it to make sure it goes in the back of the net.”
When assessing the performance throughout the match, he added: “It was always going to be a tough game. They’ve scored a lot of goals this year and we knew we had to be switched on and organised.
“I think it was all about making sure we kept everyone in front of us in the back-line organised, which we did great today, and it made my job a lot easier to have the boys there.”
Following a tough week for the Iron, the team were looking to put things right in front of the Scunthorpe faithful at Glanford Park and got back on the training pitch to make sure they put on a performance for the crowd against Barnsley.
McArdle added: “It’s been difficult. It’s always hard after a game like Wednesday and also with the news that broke on Friday. However, credit to everyone. We said it was out of our hands and it was important that we didn’t just sweep it under the carpet.
“We took what we could out of it and made sure that we were positive and bright. I think everything we spoke about before and in training we went out there and did today.”
Looking ahead to the next fixture against Accrington, the centre-back thinks it’ll be a difficult test but one that they can overcome.
He said: “Accrington is always a tough place to go to. I’m sure they will be looking to have a strong, solid home form, especially as they did so well last year. It’s still quite early on in the season so they’ll still have that confidence.
“You see what games of football are like and how quickly they can change so first and foremost, we have to have a good week of training to set the standards and keep them high to take into the game on Saturday.”
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