IRON SHOW METTLE
Scunthorpe overcome slow start
Scunthorpe United skipper Rory McArdle sets his sights high
AFTER A nightmare start to the season, Scunthorpe United were in the doldrums – but experienced skipper Rory McArdle believes they should set their sights high now.
One point from their opening seven games left the Iron rock-bottom and extended the pain from last season’s relegation to the fourth tier. The pressure was building on new manager Paul Hurst and the critics were wading in. However, the board of directors stood by the boss, the players dug deep and a run of one defeat in six, including 3-0 wins against Morecambe and Northampton, was the reward heading into yesterday’s testing trip to high-flying Newport. True, the Sands Venue Stadium outfit entered the weekend in 22nd place in League Two, but they are beginning to look up instead of down. Could the play-offs – they were 11 points adrift heading into the weekend – still be a possibility? “That’s not too extraordinary to say,” said defender McArdle. “There are plenty of games to go and points to play for. It doesn’t sound like mission impossible.
“Hopefully that’s our major blip done with and we are out the other side. In lower league football, there are a lot of games. It’s Saturday-Tuesday, and the games come thick and fast.
“Over the Christmas period, there are nine points to play for. If you pick up maximum points, you can move up four, five or six places. Things can change quickly and everyone is looking forward with optimism.”
It wasn’t like that at the start of the season, though, as the defeats kept piling up.
Extremes
“We had a hangover from last year,” admitted the former Aberdeen and Bradford man. “We were hoping to come back in pre-season and hit the ground running.
“Everyone knows it’s sometimes not as simple as that and you’ve got to give credit to everyone as we’ve tried to stick together and get over it. We’ve had a decent run and hopefully that will continue.”
Last season’s relegation was all the more surprising given that Scunthorpe had been accustomed to challenging at the other end of the table, reaching the play-offs in the previous two seasons.
“It probably made it more difficult the fact we went from one extreme to the other,” said McArdle. “Some people thought that talk of relegation was never a reality, but the table doesn’t lie. Last season we had a spell of good results here and there, but we weren’t consistent enough to stay in the division.
“It’s a different type of pressure when you’re down at the bottom in the last few games of the season and you have to win.”
If Scunthorpe are on the comeback trail, then so too is manager Hurst. The 45-year-old was on an upward trajectory with Grimsby and Shrewsbury, but then spent just five months in charge of Championship Ipswich last season before being sacked.
McArdle said: “You have to give credit to the gaffer and his staff for the way they responded to the start we had. They didn’t panic and start changing things drastically – and neither did the people higher up.
“The gaffer’s track record is there for everyone to see and he’s generally been successful. He knows how to get that winning environment and it’s coming to fruition for us now.”
And Northern Ireland international McArdle, who had chipped in with three goals pre-weekend, maintains that he always believed the Iron could shine this season.
“Even in pre-season, I thought we had a good squad,” he said. “There are a lot of good players at the club and I always thought it was a matter of time before things clicked. When you get that bit of confidence and belief, it’s amazing how things can change.”