CARETAKER manager Tony Daws says strengthening a struggling forward line has to be the first job for Scunthorpe United's next manager – whoever it may be.

The 44-year-old former striker, taking charge of the Iron for the first time since Ian Baraclough's sacking last week, could only watch from the dugout on Saturday as his side crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Ipswich Town.

Although insisting United could take 'quite a lot of positives' from the match, sealed by long-range strikes from Carlos Edwards and Jimmy Bullard, their work in the opposition penalty area won't be one of them.

The game at Portman Road was Scunthorpe's eighth successive away defeat, a horrible run in which they have failed to score in seven of those matches.

Finding a capable replacement for last season's 20-goal top scorer Gary Hooper has not yet been achieved, according to Daws.

"It's very, very difficult for us with the players we lost at the start of this season.

"When you lose people like Gary Hooper, who was guaranteed 20 or 25 goals a season, it's very difficult to replace someone like him.

"I think every football team needs someone to score goals for you and when that's taken out of your team it's very difficult.

"It didn't go how we wanted. We couldn't get the ball up the pitch for long enough and keep it there.

"Ipswich had two very dominant centre-halves and I felt when we got it up the pitch, we needed to be stronger physically to keep it up there so the midfield could join in."

Daws admitted the final scoreline had been a 'fair result' given his side's lack of quality in and around the Ipswich penalty area.

He also conceded his plans to take the game to the Tractor Boys failed to materialise.

But with little other than two cracking strikes separating two average teams the former Grimsby Town and Lincoln City striker praised the Iron's players for their efforts at the end of what he described as 'a difficult week'.

"A lot of credit has to go to our players today because I thought we had a real good go," said United's head of youth development.

"We're lacking in confidence because we've had a difficult season, but I don't think they could have given any more in terms of effort.

"The mood in the camp before the game was good.

"We'd had two days, Thursday-Friday, where the players were bright and had a smile on their face. Nobody was sulking or anything like that.

"But we came into this game on the back of two 3-0 home defeats, which have not been good for confidence.

"I said to the players after the game that in terms of what we got today, I think there's one or two building blocks we can work on.

"I thought we had a spell, 75-80 minutes, where we started to put a little bit of pressure on.

"We had three or four corners that Michael O'Connor whipped across the face of goal and at times we were not far away from sticking one of those in.

"If one of those had gone in it would have made for an interesting last 10 minutes."