First team manager Neil Cox provided his reaction to iFollow Iron after his side lost 1-0 away against Grimsby Town.
On his first derby day as Scunthorpe United manager, it was Matt Pollock who got the winning goal in the first half for the Mariners.
Cox said: “They knew it was going to be a battle, and we did work on it. They came against us, pressed our midfield and stopped us from playing, and it wasn’t until 35 minutes where we started to pass the ball better and get into good areas.
“We lacked quality, and kept giving the ball away too easily, and when we got into the final third in good positions, we just had a poor last cross or delivery. We lost the game by a set-play which is really disappointing, especially in a local derby.”
He added: “It was a scrappy game. We didn’t get going early on, we didn’t hold it up. Jordan Clarke especially came out with a lot of credit in the second half and put his body on the line and drove through it. But we need to see a bit more than that (from the team)."
Speaking about the performance as a whole, he said: “We just didn’t get started. It was really important to me as a local boy that I knew what to expect. A lot of my players have played in derbies, but I don’t think they realised how fierce this one is, even with no crowd. We’ve told them all what to expect and the blood and thunder of it passed some of my players by.
“I’m hurting big time; I’ve had a lot of messages sent to me wishing me all the best in this game. Losing any game hurts, but losing away at Grimsby is really difficult. Wwe have to get back to it. I’ll go home tonight and have a look at the game back and do my briefing and then we go again.”
United now have a week until the next game, giving them a chance to rest and get on the training ground ahead of the Boxing Day home encounter against Mansfield Town.
He said: "We’ll be in on Christmas Day, so we can get an extra day’s work in with them which is good. We can focus on what we’re going to do and how we are going to do over the Christmas period.”
See much more from Neil Cox and Jordan Clarke on iFollow Iron.