Striker Stephen Humphrys is looking forward to the prospect of playing against his former club Rochdale, with whom he spent half of the season on loan during the last campaign.
However, the 20-year-old expects no friendships on the pitch come Saturday as he gears up to face his old teammates.
In an interview with iFollow Iron previewing the fixture, he said: “To be honest, I haven’t really given it that much thought.
“I’ve spoken to a few of the lads. Magnus Norman has gone there on loan - a goalkeeper from Fulham - so I’ve been keeping in contact with him.
“It’ll be weird to see them again, I did get close to a few of the lads, but football is football and business is business. We’ll have a laugh and a joke before and after the game, but when we cross that white line, it’s all football and the best team hopefully wins.”
Humphrys expects the match against Rochdale to be a tough contest but knows the Iron have just as much quality to beat them come the final whistle.
He added: “I know that they will be energetic, and the midfield will have a lot of energy.
“Andy Cannon will pull the strings and they’ve got a proven goalscorer in Ian Henderson up front. So we will have to look out for them, but we are just as much of a good team to cause them problems as well.”
Last time out in the league, Scunthorpe played out a 1-1 draw with Accrington Stanley at the Wham Stadium.
When assessing that game, Humphrys said: “I think in the first half they had the better of the chances, but in the second we changed it about a little bit and we looked a lot stronger. Ryan (Colclough) came on and he looked a threat also.
“We went one up and I think we just had a lapse in concentration from when we scored to them equalising, but those are just the little details and if we put them right we can get a win and the confidence will be high again.”
Since then, United went on to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers U21’s in the Checkatrade Trophy on penalties on Tuesday night and the striker thinks that will be a confidence booster heading into the game at the weekend.
He said: “It’s a big boost, especially doing it in the way we did by keeping a clean sheet which is always nice. It’s a good confidence builder for everyone to finally get a win under our belts with the last one coming at the start of the season against Coventry.
“Hopefully, we can build on what we did on Tuesday going into the game against Rochdale on Saturday.”
Both Humphrys and his fellow teammates have had a full week’s training under new boss Stuart McCall and all the lads are enjoying the challenge.
He went on to say: “I’ve really enjoyed it. The intensity of the sessions has been high, the lads are also enjoying it, and everyone seems to be buying into the things that he is telling us.
“He’s an experienced manager and he knows what he’s doing by proving that at high levels. Saturday is another really good opportunity to impress him.”
As the Iron look to register their first home victory of the season against Rochdale, Humphrys had some final thoughts going into the match.
He stated: “We want to get a win under our belts and I want to get on the scoresheet if I'm playing. The fans deserve a home win, we haven’t given them that apart from the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night and I hope that we can give it to them."
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