Scunthorpe Utd: Knill tells Iron players 'our season starts now'
Manager Alan Knill wants Scunthorpe United to use his side's two-week break as the chance to put behind them a difficult opening half of the campaign – telling his players 'our season starts now'.
The Iron's FA Cup exit to AFC Wimbledon last week means instead of a second round trip to Bradford City on Saturday, they are without a game.
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Alan Knill believes Saturday's game at Notts County was full of 'so many positives' despite ending in a third successive league defeat. Picture: Dan Westwell.
November has been a woeful month for United, who as well as exiting the cup have lost all three league games and dropped to within two points of the League One relegation zone.
But they start a new week buoyed by a much more positive performance in their weekend 3-2 loss at Notts County, even though it's results which are paramount in their current situation.
"Crisis? We'll let everybody else think there's a crisis going on," said Knill, whose said the Iron would have won the game had Oli Norwood not been sent off when the visitors were 2-1 in front at Meadow Lane.
"When results aren't going for you, people can be quick to scream something's not right.
"Sometimes results aren't right, but we've worked really hard and the players have responded really well to what we're trying to tell them. Saturday's was a really good performance.
"I said to the players after the game, it's been a terrible month. We haven't won a game and we're out of the FA Cup.
"But we've ended it how we wanted to start it.
"We've played really well against the top six all season.
"What we have to do is take Saturday's performance and put it in to our home performances.
"We've got two weeks now to prepare for the next game so we'll start again. Our season starts now."
Despite the final scoreline, Knill said he could take 'so many positives' from Saturday's game.
The biggest was undoubtedly the return of two of their long-term injured – Cliff Byrne and Jordan Robertson.
The latter came on for the final 12 minutes at Meadow Lane, while club captain Byrne started his first match in well over 10 months after being sidelined by a back problem.
The Irishman's display proved just how much Scunthorpe have missed his leadership.
"Cliff was excellent from start to finish," said Knill of the former Sunderland trainee.
"He brings a lot to us, but the biggest things is his desire and work ethic.
"That becomes infectious through the team.
"We'd already decided it was time for Cliff to play and when we asked him last Thursday if he was ready he said yes."
2 Comments
by NilforKnill
Monday, November 28 2011, 2:05PM
“What an excellent performance on Saturday and a genuine improvement from two weeks ago. The sending off changed the game and Scunthorpe were in the ascendency in the second half.
The players did not rush to A.K, rather C.B for the record. He seems much more in tune with the players than A.K. He clearly commands the respect of the group. Replace A.K with Brian Laws and install Chris Brass as his assistant.
Scunthorpe still looked an average side. I thought Andy Barcham was bright and showed quality (even though he has no left foot) and it was great to see Clifford back in the side.
We looked pretty toothless up front though so I can see why people have been complaining about the lack of strikeforce! Oh how Id like to see Sharp, Hooper, Hayes, Paterson or Beckford again ;-)”
by PStoff
Monday, November 28 2011, 11:45AM
“Can someone tell us who we write to to get a refund then? Knill is in denial if he says there is no crisis down at GP - it is obvious to all that there is but as usual the club don't sort it until it is too late. We need to terminate some contracts, some mutual consents irrespective of cost as the implications will cost us much more in the long run.
Shape up or ship out, we need 11 Cliffs out here not 11 egos.”