Boss Brian Laws focuses on the positives despite an "opportunity missed" by Scunthorpe United

SCUNTHORPE United boss Brian Laws admitted Saturday's goal-less draw with Shrewsbury Town was another opportunity missed by his struggling side.

For the second home game running, the Iron finished with just a point to show for their efforts when they really should have had all three.

The hosts dominated almost from start to finish, creating numerous chances but failed to put any of them away.

With Colchester losing at Doncaster Rovers, victory would have lifted United out of the bottom four, but Laws was determined to focus on the positives.

"It would be so easy for us all to moan and say, we haven't won the game when we needed to win the game," he said.

"Of course we needed to win the game but we also needed not to lose the game.

"I thought what epitomised the performance was probably the supporters – the fact they stayed behind and clapped the players off.

"They're no fools. If the lads have put the effort in and they've had a go then they'll clap them off because they deserve the plaudits.

"I think that's great credit to the players and the fans for staying on and give credit where credit's due.

"A point is better than none, that's the way we'll look at it.

"Of course it's disappointing because we wanted maximum points, particularly at the start of the year.

"I don't think anybody would have walked away saying we didn't deserve them, but sometimes you don't get what you deserve.

"We've got to take these two points (against Oldham and Shrewsbury) in a positive manner.

"Is it four points dropped? People will, I'm sure, think about that one. But I've also got to take the positive side of things as well and with the clean-sheet in particular, we looked solid.

"There were only a couple of occasions where we looked a little bit suspect, other than that it was a solid performance all round."

Saturday was Scunthorpe's first clean-sheet since September – a 1-0 win over next week's opponents Colchester.

Although the Shrews rarely threatened at Glanford Park, there were a few nervy moments towards the end when the points almost went the other way.

"I think there was two moments. One was a mix-up between Niall (Canavan) and Sam (Slocombe), there was a 'shall I, shan't I moment'," Laws reflected.

"Sometimes they go against you and we've seen on numerous occasions in the past year or so that's probably been the cause of our downfall.

"However, we got away with it.

"And then really late on, in the 90th minute, Sam's pulled off a wonderful save for a shot (from Jon Taylor) that looked like it was going right in the top corner.

"Sam didn't have a lot to do, but when he was asked to produce a save, he certainly produced one of real quality."

United's fighting spirit also impressed the manager.

"It was an opportunity missed for sure, but you can't take away from the players the effort they put in. It was excellent," he added.

"I thought we were so much on top of this game and should have won the game.

"We probably had 70 per cent of the ball, but just that final cutting edge deserted us at times.

"But I'll take the point as a positive because it's a clean-sheet in our second home game of the year, so we're undefeated at home, which didn't go too well over the last calendar year. It's a good start to the year for us."