Iron captain Rory McArdle praised the character shown by his teammates to come from behind twice in their League One play-off semi-final first leg.
Scunthorpe United drew 2-2 with Rotherham United on Saturday. The first goal came as Duane Holmes forced an own goal out of the Millers’ defence and Cameron McGeehan grabbed his first in Iron colours to net a late equaliser.
McArdle discussed the goals, his own chance and Wednesday's second leg in an interview with iFollow Iron.
ON THE TEAM’S SPIRIT IN COMING BACK FROM BEHIND…
RM: Scoring so quickly after them takes the sting out of the game and removes any sort of momentum that they were going to get from going 1-0 up. The character that the lads showed was great. It’s easy to think of ifs and buts when you concede a goal in a game as big as this, but we spoke before the game and said that we just have to manage each situation when it comes. I think that we did that perfectly.
ON MCGEEHAN’S LATE EQUALISER…
RM: It was brilliant. I think you could see everyone diving in and celebrating. To come as late as it did and, after such a lot of hard work had been put in, was great. Credit to Rotherham because when they went 2-1 up they sat in a bit, tried to frustrate us and made it hard for our front four. However, we changed our tactics a little bit and the goal came from a long throw. Credit to Cam (McGeehan) as he took his chance. He has had to be patient for the opportunities that he’s had and it just shows that those opportunities do come. He’s come in and he’s helped the team massively.
ON THE MATCH ITSELF…
RM: I think it was a typical play-off game to be honest. It was pretty tight throughout the whole match. Usually, the game settles down a bit and opens up but we probably only had a ten or fifteen minute spell in the second-half where it did that. Everything is to play for and I think that we showed a lot of character to keep on pushing at 2-1 to get that equaliser. Fortunately, it came and we created a couple of half decent chances so all in all it’s a half decent result.
ON ALMOST SCORING HIMSELF…
RM: I was disappointed. It’s always nice to get in the right areas during set-pieces, and you’ve got to try and make them count. We did that today and in the second-half I probably should have been better with the header. The fact that me and the other lads are getting in there and getting heads on things to make those opportunities is good. It’s important that we look to carry on doing as good as we have been doing.
ON WHAT TO TAKE INTO THE SECOND LEG OF THE PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINALS…
RM: No matter where you are in the game, it can change quickly. Even if you are behind in the game, you have 90+ minutes to get back in it. It’s important that you manage each situation as it happens in the match and I thought we did that on Saturday.
ON HOW EXCITED HE IS FEELING AHEAD OF THE SECOND LEG…
RM: Everything is to play for. We are going away from home and we will have good support there. The fans will get right behind us like they did on Saturday. We can go there with a game plan and hopefully have a way of coming out as the victors.
ON HOW BIG THE TRAVELLING SUPPORTERS WILL BE IN THE AWAY LEG…
RM: When you go away from home it can always be difficult so you need all the help that you can get. Therefore, the fact that we have sold out the away end as quickly as we did showed the commitment the fans are making. They can help us and we can help them. Overall, they will have a positive effect on Wednesday’s game.
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