Taft: It will be a different kind of test

Scunthorpe United defender George Taft insists he and his team-mates are fully prepared for the strong test Dorking Wanderers will no doubt bring to Glanford Park this weekend.

The Iron performed valiantly during our last National League outing against York City, with Rob Apter netting his first goal for the club, after Lenell John-Lewis had opened the scoring for the visitors. 

With Marc White’s men recording an impressive 3-1 home victory over Notts County last time out themselves, Taft is fully aware of the challenge the Wanderers will no doubt bring to North Lincolnshire. 

"It’ll be a different kind of test," he began, when speaking to Iron Player earlier this week. 

"We’ve been working hard this week on how they play and how we wanted to play against them. We’ll try and put that into place come Saturday.

"In the league we are not where we want to be but basing it off the last couple of games, our position does not reflect where we want to be. We just need to put those finishing touches and put the ball into the back of the net to get those points on the board."

Following a dominant display in the second half against the Minstermen last weekend, the 29-year-old is hoping both the performance and energy levels can be sustained moving forward this season. 

"Definitely," responded Taft, when asked if the game can be used as a benchmark. "It’s one of our better performances of the season and we have to take that on and use the confidence from that. The lads are all thinking this is us now and this is our standard that we now need to stay at.

"It was really organised, obviously the goal was a penalty which is sometimes a tough one to take but we defended well to create our own chances."

With quick adaptation needed following the introduction of interim boss Tony Daws and interim assistant manager Michael Nelson in recent weeks, Taft has also praised the solid foundation the two are trying to build inside the Iron’s dressing room.

"It's been really good, both of them have been really good. Tony has done a lot with the attacking and Nels with the defending," he added. "It’s working as you can see and different managers have different styles of training. All the lads are enjoying it. It's fun yet hard and we are working on how we want to play come Saturday.’’

With keeping the ball out of the net a main focus too, Nelson’s know-how has certainly aided the backline in recent weeks.

Now, with the emphasis on trying to add to our tally at the other end, the former Bolton man has also praised the recent addition of Saturday’s goalscorer. 

Taft added: "The lads have worked hard and Rob [Apter] has come in who is sharp and gets on the ball and gives us a breather to get into shape. It’s working out well.

"We are keeping the belief when before we would maybe go a goal down and it goes to two and the heads would drop. That's not been the case in the last couple of weeks."

See more from George Taft on Iron Player.