Lavery: We needed that as a group

Forward Caolan Lavery was extremely pleased with the performance and resilience shown by the team under the floodlights against Gateshead on Tuesday night, as they emerged 3-1 victors.

“I think we needed that as a group," he started. “It's one for the supporters as well. They’ve stuck with us; they’ve done the journeys that we’ve done and they’ve always been there so it was nice to get three points and hopefully we can kick on now.

“It’s obviously disappointing that we went a goal down but again the lads showed great resilience and we came back and won the game quite comfortably in the end. I thought everyone was excellent on the night. The work rate and intensity were really good so to follow up those last two results with a win on Tuesday was very good.

“On the night, I was given the freedom to attack the ball from a corner. I had a bit of a different role previously so it was nice to repay them with attacking and scoring, and it turned out to be the winner so it’s always great to score goals."

Speaking about the number of penalties the Iron have been awarded this season and fellow strike partner Joe Nuttall’s ability to dispatch them, Lavery stated: “He’s getting a knack of scoring them which is good, so the more the lads around us can win penalties we have loads of confidence in Joe (Nuttall) taking them.

“I think we’ve got lads in the team that have that ability once they’re inside the box to make a defender make a decision - either they try to win the ball or they back off, and you can either have a shot yourself or create a chance for one of us - so long may it continue that we’re getting in those positions to win penalties."

When asked about playing at Glanford Park and the fans’ impact on the team’s performances, Lavery replied: "It's good to play here at Glanford Park, and like I said earlier the fans want to get behind us. We want and need them so it’s always nice when they’re there whether it’s winning or losing. I think they’ve stuck with us really well and we appreciate that.

“We appreciate them coming and whether it’s here, there or everywhere we really appreciate it so we’re looking forward to seeing them on Friday (away at Barnet).

“I think we have to take confidence into our next game, I think that was probably our most complete performance apart from obviously the individual mistake at the start but I think that was pretty good from everyone all across the pitch. I think the intensity, work rate and togetherness really showed on the night – we stuck to our game plan and it turned out well."

Finally, Lavery commented on the Iron’s jump out of the relegation zone, adding: “It’s good to get out of the bottom four, we spoke a little about it before and then we talked about it again at half-time and I think that was our first goal that we needed to work towards - to get out that bottom four. We don’t want to be near it and fans don’t want us to be near it so now we need to kick on and hopefully take ourselves away from it."

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