Andy Butler reviews opening warm-up encounter

Following the Iron’s first pre-season encounter of the 2024-25 season, newly appointed first team manager Andy Butler reflected on his sides thumping 5-0 victory over local outfit Barton Town in what was also his first game in charge.

“Firstly, thank you to Barton for hosting us," he said.

"We asked a lot of the players after just seven or eight days; we gave them some information which they took on board really well and that performance has given us a good base and I’m really impressed.”

Scunthorpe came into the game following a gruelling first week of pre-season and Butler reflected on the players commitment to the opening week: “It’s been tough but hats off to every single one of the lads because not one of them has broken or mumbled, and they’ve all dragged each other through, so it’s great to see such a tight knit group.”

The Iron’s recruitment has been steady so far due to the club retaining the vast majority of last years promotion challenging squad, Butler added his thoughts on the importance of keeping the core of the squad together: “I think it was really important that we kept the group together as we were a successful side last year, but like you said we’ve had a few additions and a few trialists in, and they’ve all adapted really well.

“We’ve had a range of sessions over the last few weeks, and it’s been to get a bit of variety into the players, so therefore thankyou to everyone who’s let us use their facilities.”

Butler has alluded many times to the fact that fitness will be the key to success this season and further proved his point when stating: “The lads came in and did a session this afternoon because we wanted to try and play them under fatigue, so if any of the fans noticed a few wayward passes toward the end of both halves, that’ll be because we trained today, and had a double sessions yesterday.”

Finally, Butler reflected on his sides spirited performance by adding: “I thought some of the play was excellent, and hopefully we can build on that. I said to the players before the start of the game I wasn’t interested in the result - it was more the effort and application that I was looking for, and as a result of that we saw some incredible goals.”