I will not write here that all is okay and everything will be fine, because it isn’t and we are now coming to the most important four games since I joined the club.

We have been fortunate to have had a successful couple of years but now find ourselves battling for our lives in League One, something we certainly had not expected, but we do fortunately still have our future in our own hands.

I will take full responsibility for our position, however I am not giving up and neither are the management or the players.

It is now vital that we all pull together and it is crucial we do that as soon as possible, especially with a home game on Friday, which we can win. All I ask is that for this one home match we put behind us any grievance, we support the team whether they make a bad pass, mistake, concede a goal or don’t play fluent football. If we give our players the sort of support we started with on Saturday, but continue it through the tough parts of the match, our players will respond and get the result we need.

I am not asking for any more. It is down to them to deliver and knowing them as I do, the players will give everything, supported by Andy and his management team.

We have also today decided to cancel the awards night so we can concentrate and focus on the task in hand, which means we can have no distractions over the next four games. We will inform you, the fans, before the end of the season which players have won various awards and presentations will be arranged in the Executive Lounge or Iron Bar, if possible.

If clarity was needed for some of the fans, who seem to think that recruitment has changed within the club, it hasn’t. We have always recruited players in the same way, since day one, giving ourselves the opportunity to sign a fantastic range of players. The difference this season will be the fact we sold four players to the Championship and then suffered a huge injury list, which included some very key players for long periods of time. I believe that if Josh Morris, Matthew Lund, Ryan Colclough, Jordan Clarke and Funso Ojo (during the first half of season) were available to the club for the majority of the games, we would be in the top half of the table and pushing for the play-offs, because they give us the depth we so need, as a League One club.

Saying that I do believe that the players who have stepped in have shown some grit and determination, although we may have lacked quality at key times in matches, which I believe the players would admit is true. We need to cancel out those mistakes, take our chances when they come along and dig in for the next four matches, to ensure we survive. I have seen that in training and we need that application transferred to the pitch for 90 minutes, which starts on Friday at home to Blackpool.

We need to show other clubs we have that spirit running through the football club and I believe we do, which is why I am here supporting and securing the future of Scunthorpe United with a stadium development and financial backing.

These times are always nerve racking for all of us and it is no different in our household I assure you!

I feel everything you do, I’m human, not a robot or someone who doesn’t care, but sometimes I get things wrong, players get things wrong, managers get things wrong, but in the end it is my responsibility and I stand by every decision I have made since I became your chairman whether you feel they were right or wrong decisions.

All we can do is push the team forward and that is all I have ever asked, so let’s do exactly that on Friday and try and give them the home edge they need from you the supporters. 

As always, your Chairman
Peter Swann
UTI

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