Following the Iron’s thumping pre-season victory over local outfit Bottesford Town, we caught up with assistant manager John Schofield to find out his thoughts on the fixture and how he feels pre-season is shaping up as a whole as the Vanarama National League North season draws nearer.
Firstly, Schofield provided his opinion on the encounter with the Poachers by saying: “I thought it was a decent game of football in all, and you could see from the off that the opposition wanted to start brightly and get into the game, therefore it was down to us to weather the storm which I thought we did well.
“We were unfortunate to go one down, but we fought to get back into the game, and then in the second half our fitness showed and helped us. The lads were implementing the passages of play that we’ve been working on in training, so it was a good run out.”
Scunthorpe’s six goals in the fixture were a sight to behold with a number of crisp passing moves resulting in the net bulging, Schofield provided his opinions on the goals by continuing: “We work on getting bodies into the box and we also had a few shots from distance although I feel as though we could’ve had some more. At times the balls into the box weren’t great, and equally we spoke about it at half-time and put emphasis on the point of getting the ball into the box which we did well in the second half which is really positive.
“The lads minutes are balancing out now and we’re getting towards the nitty gritty end of pre-season, so now when the lads do get on the pitch, they need to stick to the game plan and show what they can do which will help the manager make his decisions for the tenth of August.”
The Iron have their first home game of the pre-season campaign this upcoming Saturday as they’re set to face Halifax Town. Schofield provided his thoughts ahead of the encounter with the Shaymen: “The lads are buzzing to be playing at home again, it’s a lovely tight stadium with a great atmosphere, so the lads are eager to show what they can do and there’s been some real positives leading up to the game.”
This interview was the first time Schofield had spoken on camera since his return to Scunthorpe after a 10-year absence, Butler’s right-hand man proceeded to express his joy to be back at the club by saying: “As my wife will tell you, I’m unfortunately the same all the time as every morning I jump out of bed and can’t wait to get to work. I love watching the lads train and work hard but I also love taking the micky out of everybody and love people taking the micky out of me and I think the banter around the players is what it’s all about, as that helps to create an environment where you want to come into work."
Lastly, day one of obtaining the manager’s job, Andy Butler immediately said that he wanted Schofield as his number two, in response to being asked how good the dynamic between Butler and Schofield, the latter joked: “I think he’s made a great choice and he’s obviously a really good judge of character.
"I’ve worked with an Andy Butler before who had a lot of similar characteristics to myself, and the gaffer who I work with now is exactly the same.”
