Post-Hartlepool reaction from first team manager Andy Butler

Following the Iron’s pre-season defeat at the hands of Hartlepool, first team manager Andy Butler provided his opinion on the fixture as a whole and the positives he’d taken from the tie despite the result. 

Firstly, Butler was questioned on his thoughts about the fixture as a whole and responded by saying: “I thought it was a very good run out for the lads, and I thought they were excellent. We asked them to play as though it was a league game, and I think both teams did that well because Hartlepool are a good outfit.

“It was a good test for the lads, and I’ve said it before that I’m not bothered about results just yet because that starts on the 10th of August. Right now I'm interested in the application and the effort that the players are showing.

Hartlepool were a tough and physical side that provided a good contest for Butler’s side. He had this to say on our opponents’ style of play: “We knew they were going to be direct and were going to try and use their big striker, but overall, we dealt with him barring obviously two mistakes. You can pick the bones out of every goal and there will be mistakes everywhere so, as I keep saying, we’re still working and improving on preventing that."

The Iron scored a beautiful goal on the night that came from some superb play from Michael Kelly to set up the goal scorer Cal Roberts. Butler continued: “That goal just showed the quality in our team. Kells did ever so well using the width and it was a really good finish from Cal that topped off a great performance out of possession from him as well.

“In the second half we experimented with a couple of different formations and in total we made nine changes, because of this we were bound to become a bit disjointed, but we still performed well, and it was pleasing for me and the staff.”

The Iron now have just one pre-season game remaining in the form of League Two side Chesterfield, Butler provided his opinion on what is anticipated to be the hardest test of this pre-season: “Chesterfield have been promoted recently and have a good manager in charge, they’ve had some good results this pre-season, but I just want to see the effort from the players and I still except us to compete with them because that’s just part of my mentality.”