Iron winger Mark Duffy spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Glanford Park this evening, Duffy saying that two wins in a row for Scunthorpe has been overdue:
“It has been a long time coming. We’ve put some good performances in at home but we’ve needed those wins and we’re just glad to get them really. As the manager has said, there are a lot of times where we’ve played really well and not got the points. I’d take a scrappy performance if it gets us the three points – I’d take that all season if it means we stay in this division.
“We do seem to have become a lot more consistent since Christmas and to pick up the points around this time of the season is vital. Long may it continue. We have a tough game on Tuesday though and we’re under no illusions about how tough it will be. We only played them a fortnight ago and it took a wondergoal (from Dave Symington) to stop us from winning away at Carlisle then.
“We’re fully aware of what Carlisle are capable of but we go into the game with a lot of confidence. They are physical, but most teams in this league are very similar. We know it will be a tough battle, with a lot of second balls to be won. When we played them down there I thought we had quite a lot of possession and created more chances than they did.
“We go into the match full of confidence and believe we can win again. We haven’t won three games in a row since I’ve been here so it will be a good thing if we can do it. We’ve played well all though the season, but at key times we’ve shipped goals or not converted our chances. If you asked a lot of managers of teams in this league though, I bet they wouldn’t fancy coming to play us.
“At the start of the season we were trying to be more fluid and rotated positions, but since the new manager has come in the first thing he has wanted was a solid base. The lads at the back have been superb and they deserve a lot of credit for helping us get on this run really.”
In team news for the Iron this evening they have just two players missing through injury, with the absent pair being right-back and former Carlisle-loanee Cristian Ribeiro and central midfielder Damien Mozika (both hamstring). On the better side of things for boss Brian Laws though he is able to welcome back left-winger Andy Barcham (thigh) and central midfielder Robbie Gibbons (illness) to his matchday squad for tonight's game.
The referee for tonight’s match is David Coote from Newark in Nottinghamshire and he will be assisted down the lines by Seb Stockbridge from Dunston, Tyne & Wear and Neil Hair from Peterborough. Meanwhile the fourth official is Ian Dudley from Blidworth in Nottinghamshire.