Midfielder Michael O'Connor believes Scunthorpe United are being hampered by a lack of confidence.

Although manager Alan Knill has suggested otherwise, the Northern Irishman admits self-belief is currently a problem for 'a few' members of the Iron squad as they look to pull themselves out of a slump in form.

And he accepts his own performances have not reached the heights he would have liked so far this season."I'm doing alright. I'm not doing well but I'm not doing awful," said O'Connor.

"I'm trying. I'm working hard to try to help the team.

"It's a hard league, it's a very tough league to get out of and to play in.

"You need players who work hard. If everyone works hard on the pitch then those players will play well, simple as that.

"It's not going as well as I thought it would have done but I'll just keep trying.

"I'll keep plugging away and hopefully when we start getting some wins I'll start playing well and we'll see what happens.

"I would say there's a few players low on confidence. It's okay if there's one player low on confidence or two, but there are a few.

"We just have to try to get behind the lads that aren't doing too well or have made mistakes. But, it's football for you, you make mistakes in this game.

"If you see a player that's low on confidence, you try to help them."I'm not too bad. I get on with it.

"If I make a mistake I know I'll get booed by the fans, but I don't listen to it, I just get on with it.

"If a player loses the ball, makes a mistake and doesn't track back, if he doesn't work hard, I'll have a go at them. But if a player works hard and tries to take the ball back, I'll try to help them.

"It's just not a great place to be at the minute."

United travel to Notts County tomorrow looking to end a miserable month on a high.Tuesday night's FA Cup exit at the hands of AFC Wimbledon produced some strong reactions from the Glanford Park crowd.

And although O'Connor can understand supporters' frustrations, he says they are not always expressed in the best way.

"We're just not playing well enough at the minute. I think we need to work harder as a team," he said.

"A few of the fans are saying it looks like we're playing as 11 individuals out there and you can't play like that in this game.

"It doesn't feel like we're doing that. Some players are trying to do too much and it looks like they're doing it by themselves.

"It's a good thing for players to do that, but at times we're just making the wrong decisions in the last third – we're not shooting, we're passing and we're shooting when we should be passing.

"I can definitely see where the fans are coming from.

"I support Celtic and they're not having a great season this year, but if I went to a game, I wouldn't boo them.

"Even before the match kicked off on Tuesday I had some guy come over to me, telling me how bad I was and how bad the team was.

"You don't need that in the warm-up.

"It doesn't affect me, but it's not nice. I'm trying to concentrate on the game.

"It's not nice when you have one or two fans come up into your face when you're trying to warm up, telling you how bad you are.

"It's not good, but that's football for you. People like that have never played the game so they don't understand.

"The lads go out and try their best.

"There are times when it probably looks like they're not trying, but it's hard, when you're losing 1-0 or 2-0 against teams who you should be beating, your confidence gets knocked.

"It's not a nice feeling.

"But I think all the lads do give it their best. They don't go out on the pitch to lose."