Daws: We had something to prove tonight

Scunthorpe United interim first team manager Tony Daws has hailed his side’s resilience after the Iron came back from a goal down to beat Gateshead at Glanford Park.

Following Adam Campbell’s early opener, United roared back to claim all three points, with Joe Nuttall (two) and Caolan Lavery on target during our 3-1 victory.

Climbing out of the relegation zone in the process, Daws hailed his team’s performance insisting he is happy to relish the winning feeling.

"We have not had [the feeling of three points] enough this season but I am really pleased with the players tonight," he began speaking to Iron Player. 

"After going a goal down again tonight which is disappointing, we dug in and had to withstand a little bit of pressure from Gateshead at times, but we managed to get through. Joe [Nuttall] has had a good chance before he stuck his penalty away but in the end I am really really pleased."

Having suffered just one defeat in our last eight domestic outings, the Iron travel to Barnet on Friday evening bidding to extend our recent strong run of league form. 

With Daws’ insisting building confidence is a key mantra moving forward, he believes winning games is the best way to progress as a collective.

"We have got good players, it's just trying to get the lads to believe in themselves, and turn up with their best performance each game," he added. "We were all gutted how we performed at Southend and we had something to prove tonight.

"We've done it the hard way, but the resilience and the character that we have shown to come from behind when they could have gone over as the crowd were restless at that stage, there were a few boos which I get and I understand that, it doesn't help but I get it. But we get that and they clapped us off the pitch, we'll take some more of that."

Having conceded early on once more, United showed grit to bounce back with the 56-year-old also believing steps have been put in place to eradicate our recent bad habit.

"It's not something we want to do, we don't want to concede early on as it puts us on the backfoot," Daws said. "But we stuck to the game plan and we came in at 1-1 at half-time and we said to the lads nothing changes, we stick to the game plan, we tried to press them early and we tried to nick the ball up the pitch which was the plan tonight. 

"That's what the plan always is to try and work hard and win the ball and keep attacking right till the end of the game. It doesn't always happen but it tonight it has gone well for us."

Nuttall found the net twice during the 90 minutes, registering both his eighth and ninth goals of the campaign so far. Amplifying his praise for the forward, Daws praised the 25-year-old’s impact for the side.

"I think for Joe [Nuttall] they are two good penalties, as it is not easy to take one penalty in a game, to take two your start to second-guess yourself a little but and think 'do I go the same way or do I switch it and go the other corner'," he added.

"Then you start thinking what the goalkeeper is going to think. It's not easy to take penalties so well done to Joe today. The penalties you could say we won them but the referee awarded them so that's good and we are getting into good goal scoring positions.

"We have scored a good goal from Caolan Lavery on the corner, which is really satisfying for Nelse [Michael Nelson] and myself because it's something we work on, set-plays and trying to score from that and getting organised. Lavs has put a bullet a header off the underside of crossbar and in. Lots and lots of positives and it's not always going to be like that so lets enjoy it whilst we can."

See much more from Tony Daws and Caolan Lavery on Iron Player.