The Iron Show Their Mettle

The scoreline was as changable as the weather. A sunny Valley later saw the home team depart under something of a methaphorical dark cloud as 2 points were lost in the last quarter of the game.

To be fair a draw was the right result as Scunthorpe played their part in an entertaining game. They never sat back and were indeed unlucky to go behind. Up to that point I felt they'd had the greater possession if not threat. We probably didn't really deserve to extend the lead soon after the break either.

I felt that Scunny would prove difficult opposition and so they were. They were a tad physical at times and I think the ref should have dealt better with an assault on Hayes early on to set a marker but in all honesty they were far from the worst we've seen in tier 3. They played some good stuff at times and are probably a couple of players shy from giving themselves a good chance of going back up. Come the end of the season this may look quite a good point although I felt we really ought to have held on.

We did seem a little lacklustre today and never really got going. The slick one touch stuff of recent games wasn't there today and on occasions we were slow to close down too.

I'm still to be convinced about Skip playing on the left. He doesn't look or play like a winger, always tucking in and dropping too deep on occasion. On the other side Wagstaff did little in the first half and was often seen at right back. For me he didn't show at all in the second and should have been replaced by Green after no more than 10 minutes. Green in the short time he was on created several chances and delivered some quality crosses whilst displaying the aggression that Wagstaff clearly lacks.

Why Stephens came over to play keep ball in the corner to waste time when Green was waiting to deliver a corner I don't know. It was negative thinking and we need to be more postiive than that. The negative thinking was enhanced when Doherty came on for BWP. Sir Chris has done that twice at home now. His presence didn't prevent the second goal and again sent out the wrong message.

The result was when we needed a third goal there was only one stiker in Euell on the pitch. We should look to play to our strengths and not be so negative.

I remarked after the Colchester game that if we kept failing to take more of our chances it would in all likelihood come back to bite us on the bum sometime and today it did. I appreciate that their keeper made some good saves but we need to be more clinical.

However, I mustn't be too critical, to date we've played some good football that's pleasing on the eye and are still level on points at the top.

Perhaps there's greater reward in beating Reading on Tuesday than just getting into the 2nd round of the Carling Cup. A postponement of the MK Dons game doesn't look too bad a thing at the moment.