GIVEN his team's run of form, you can only imagine the atmosphere has been a little frosty in the Woolford household over the past few weeks.

Scunthorpe United winger Martyn admits he is far from the best of company when the Iron are on the wrong end of a result.

But with psychology able to play such an important role in the game, the bad mood stops when he returns to the United training ground.

Four defeats on the spin can knock any player's confidence, particularly when Woolford and his team-mates felt they had turned a corner.

That impressive 2-0 success at Burnley last month was earmarked as a watershed.

Unfortunately, it proved to be anything but.

This time around, Woolford is determined things will be different.

Bag three points against the Clarets tomorrow, and not only will the Iron's home hoodoo be brought to an end, but it would be just in time for a crucial run against some of their fellow Championship strugglers.

"We thought the result against Burnley last time was going to kick us out of it, but it didn't," said Woolford, who opened the scoring at Turf Moor.

"We'll just be looking back at that game, that will give us the confidence we need to get through the game tomorrow.

"We know we can beat them.

"If we can get another good result we should be able to kick on from that, with Preston and Middlesbrough coming up.

"It has been difficult.

"It's sometimes a grim place when you're losing games.

"When you're winning every game, the confidence is up there and you think you're going to carry on winning games. I suppose it can work the other way.

"No-one wants to be losing, especially week after week like we have been doing.

"I'm sometimes not a nice man to be around when we've just lost a game.

"But you've got to try to put it behind you as soon as you can and look to the next game.

"You spend maybe a night or two in a bad mood and then you've just got to put it out of your mind.

"You get back on the training ground with the lads and get laughing and joking again to keep the spirits high.

"That can sometimes help you forget about the bad results that have gone before.

"It's not too difficult because we've got a good set of lads.

"We've got some strong characters in the dressing room, so hopefully we will be able to get each other through going into the next game and get a good result."

To read Woolford's views on the impact the Iron's new arrivals can have on the rest of the season, see a four-page match preview in Friday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.