Midfielder Alex Gilliead has stated the Iron must use the Papa John’s Trophy game against Mansfield Town on Tuesday night (7pm kick-off) to get back to winning ways and transfer the confidence into the league.
United play their final match in a cup competition in the 2020-21 season, with their fate already sealed in the group stages. The Stags also can't progress any further, and will be looking to back up their FA Cup win at Sunderland on Saturday after Nigel Clough became their new manager.
Speaking to iFollow Iron, Gilliead said: “We need to put ourselves under pressure now. We’re under no illusions that we’re in the position we’re in. We need to get onto each other and be demanding more from each other.
“We need to be winning games. Even though we can’t go through to the next round, we need that psychological boost to make sure that we get that winning feeling back and that spring in our step so that we can push on in the league.
“We’re playing against Mansfield, who are in a similar position to us in the league. We don’t know what kind of side they’ll put out, but whoever plays for us on Tuesday, we need to win.
“Fundamentally, we need to win, get a good feeling around us and take that into the league.”
Both sides will be playing for third place in the group, with Manchester City Under-21s and Lincoln City the two sides to progress to the knockout stages.
Scunthorpe will also be looking to sweep aside the disappointment of their FA Cup exit against Solihull Moors on Sunday.
“We were disappointed to go out of the FA Cup,” Gilliead stated.
“It’s always a chance to get through and to get a good draw. We felt like we were on top in the first half, but we’ve got to cut out those individual errors. Conceding so early has put us on the back foot.
“It’s what we do out on the pitch and we can’t keep giving teams the chance from silly individual errors and the boys know that. I was at fault for one against Cambridge. We need to get them out of our game and we need to do it quickly. We’ve got a lot of games coming up that we need to win.”
The side were back in action for the first time since October 24th at the weekend, with a number of players unable to train ahead of the clash with Solihull Moors due to their isolation periods.
Gilliead’s final thoughts were on that spell: “What’s gone on (in the last two weeks) has affected us.
“We can’t make any excuses about that as it is affecting a lot of people in a much worse way than it has for us. We just need to get on with it now, get all the lads back in the building and then make sure we are all pushing for the same goal of picking up results and winning games.”
See much more from Alex Gilliead on iFollow Iron. Click here to get your match pass for the Iron's Papa John's Trophy group stage game against Mansfield Town.