Captain Rory McArdle felt James Perch’s sending off in the first-half was a turning point in the Iron’s 2-0 defeat at Southend United on Tuesday night.
United fell behind early on, before Perch was shown his second yellow card of the game.
The home side secured their victory with ten minutes to go through former Scunthorpe midfielder Sam Mantom.
On that red card, the 31-year old told iFollow Iron: “The sending off was soft.
“From where I saw Perch’s first yellow card, he got the ball first and the second one is soft.
“That was a big turning in the game, but credit to everyone as we kept going and stuck at it.”
However, McArdle did admit it was a frustrating evening for the Iron after making a long trip to Roots Hall.
“It was disappointing,” said the defender. “We know it was going to be tough – they had been on a bad run, so they were going to start quickly as they did.
“We never got to grips with the game and conceding that first goal gave us a bit of a mountain to climb.
“In the second-half, we dug in with ten men and created a few half-chances.
“On another day, if the equaliser goes in, we would have put them on the backfoot, but we didn’t get it.”
For the second game in a row, McArdle started the match at right-back: “It is somewhere that I haven’t played for a while.
“I’m not going to moan about it, but the squad is stretched at the moment so you need to do that sometimes.
“It is part and parcel of football and I will do it to my best ability.”
The Iron have a chance to put this league result behind them when they travel to Shrewsbury Town on Sunday afternoon in the Emirates FA Cup Second Round.
McArdle believes the side need a big reaction heading into that clash.
He said: “It is a cup game, so it could take the pressure off us a little bit. We need to dust ourselves down, keep working hard and hopefully something will drop for us.
“It is about getting a reaction and making sure everybody is in the building bright and bubbly.
“As disappointing as it, it is not going to magically happen. We need to keep working at it.
“Hopefully we can have a few more bodies back.”
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