Personally and collectively, defender Rory McArdle is looking for the performance and consistency levels to continue to grow off the back of Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Crawley Town.
The 32-year-old notched his first Scunthorpe goal at the Sands Venue Stadium at the weekend, heading home an Adam Hammill corner in the first half and is eager to continue to contribute on the scoring front.
“Whenever you don’t get the three points, it is important that you try and come away with something,” he said, speaking to iFollow Iron.
“Having been in front in the game, it is disappointing not to have won. Equally, in hindsight, a draw was probably a fair result.
“It’s obviously always nice to score. From a collective point of view, it is important that everyone tries to chip in as much as possible. First and foremost, we are judged on keeping them out at the other end, which is something that we need to be a lot better at.
“When we do go up for corners and set-pieces, everyone is going in and making the runs aiming to score. They can soon add up and they might be the goals that get us the three points in another fixture.”
McArdle was an unused substitute in the side’s first two league games of the season against Swindon Town and Cheltenham Town but was recalled to the eleven to be part of the team who produced a much improved performance against Derby County in the Carabao Cup before retaining his place at the weekend.
The central defender reacted to this, stating his eagerness to remain in the side.
“As disappointing as it is when you’re not playing, it is important you don’t show it,” he continued.
“Things can change so quickly in football and when the opportunity does come, you don’t want to let yourself or anyone else down. It’s a long season, players will be in and out of the team and may be needed to play out of position too. It’s just part and parcel of it.
“When you’re training, it is important that everyone is working hard so that if you’re called upon you can hit the ground running and then ultimately it is about staying in the team.”
A trip to the Abbey Stadium to face Cambridge United will be the Iron’s second away trip of the campaign and, despite the Us being unbeaten in their four games in all competitions so far this season, McArdle is aiming for a first win in 2019-20.
“They had a good result at the weekend, coming back from 1-0 down,” he stated.
“It is going to be tough. It’s still early in the season and we will be striving to get our first three points and they’re going to be looking to build on their positive start.
“We need to go there and work hard, do all the basics right and ultimately do what we can to try and come away with three points.
“Things can change very quickly in football, especially when you have the midweek fixtures. The next time we play at home hopefully we will have had two positive performances, we have progressed more as a team and our performance and consistency levels will be going up. It would be great to give everybody that lift that we all need."
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