Scunthorpe United boss Jimmy Dean has insisted he will take the positives from a spirited showing against title contenders Wrexham on Tuesday evening.
Two penalties, both won and scored by forward Paul Mullin, was enough to secure all three points for Phil Parkinson’s side, despite the Iron having battled well throughout the 90 minutes.
Cameron Wilson, Aflie Beestin and Tom Pugh all went close for United at the Racecourse Ground, with Dean providing his thoughts following the full-time whistle in north Wales.
"You’ve watched it and I have been tied into the game and the stats read we have done well," he began speaking to Iron Player. "I thought we were excellent. We were just on the wrong side of a couple of key decisions and a couple of chances.
"Before any negativity goes against Fozzy [Owen Foster], he’s spilled one ball when we are chasing the game. He has made two big saves I think and their keeper has dropped three or four in and around and we haven't followed up. Thats the percentages they have used.
"I am really proud of the level we have had here and we need to just get better and better. We have given these a proper game of football tonight. Looking forward I am happy and I know results haven’t gone how we wanted them to tonight but there is a long way to go. I am as positive as I can be."
Coming into the game following our recent 3-2 victory over Dagneham and Redbridge at Glanford Park on Saturday, Dean opted to go with the same starting team, barring Aaron Chapman’s omission in goal, following the birth of his child this evening.
Praising his side’s endeavour throughout the encounter, the boss added: "I thought they were superb on Saturday, I thought they were superb today and the way we played was actually better against - no respect to Dagenham - a better team.
"It was a hostile environment and in the first half we got our head down and played. We were a little bit disjointed when we went 4-4-2, the messages were probably a little but mixed, as we haven’t done a lot on that and that’s the truth. We have been trying to narrow down plan A, but we will give plan B a little bit of work now and obviously Gerry [McDonagh] has been injured.
"It did get a little bit disjointed at the end when he came on but I do think we should have got more crosses into the box when he came on."
With Boreham Wood the next task for United to attempt to navigate through this weekend, the 40-year-old was keen to look forward, insisting the group have been dealt setbacks before and have still responded in the right manner.
"We beat Dagenham on Saturday and they got the first goal but we still found a way," he added. "I sat there thinking to myself, these and Notts County are 49 points above us before we play. I dont think barring these two penalties, whether one was a dive or not I dont know, that there were huge differences beside when we went 4-4-2.
"They had the overload in the middle and it showed and we didnt play forward quick enough. When we did, we didnt keep the ball. We got a great half from it, plenty to be positive about but we didn't get the points."
Finally, praising the valiant efforts of our magnificent 244 supporters who made the trip to Wrexham, Jimmy believes his players will have no problem in finding vital motivation across the next couple of months with their backing behind us.
"[They were] brilliant," Dean said. "I was stood there and I could hear them more than any of the other stands. Absolutely fantastic. That there is exactly why we will be back at it again this Saturday. We will turn up this Saturday and we won't give up. We will go for it as hard as we can.’’