Daws delighted after Scunthrope secure place in League One play-offs

Posted Wednesday, May 02, 2018 by PA

Interim manager Nick Daws admitted he was delighted to see Scunthorpe secure themselves a play-off place with a 2-0 victory over fellow top six hopefuls Plymouth.

He now wants the improving Iron to go on and finish the job started by predecessor Graham Alexander, who was axed in March with the club fifth in the table but without a win in eight games.

“I’m so pleased for everyone connected with the club because it’s been a difficult season on the whole,” said Daws.

“I don’t think we’ve ever achieved what we are fully capable of in terms of finding that consistency to our game.

“From the turn of the year it became really tough, which resulted in Graham losing his job, which was difficult for me personally as well as the players and staff because of what he is like as a person as well as a manager.

“One of the first things he said though was ‘go try to finish it off’ and we’ve now got a chance to do that.

“The boys did everything we asked of them tonight. Right from the first minute they showed bravery in possession and penetrated the lines.

“We scored two cracking goals and should have had more, but credit to the Plymouth keeper for the saves he made and the defence for throwing their bodies in front of our shots.

“In the second half we had to defend a little bit before we got the second goal, but to go on and keep another clean sheet was pleasing.”

A win at Glanford Park would have lifted Plymouth above their hosts and put the Pilgrims in pole position to finish in the top six.

But missing several first team regulars through injury, Argyle never really got going, with Hakeeb Adelakun firing the Iron ahead in the 32nd minute before Ivan Toney produced a clever back heel to make the result safe in the second half.

Plymouth can still sneak into the play-offs, but need to win on the final day, hope sixth-placed Charlton lose at Rochdale and also make up a six goal swing.

Boss Derek Adams though is not giving up hope.

He said: “I don’t think it was our best performance tonight. We ran out of players and eventually it told.

“We had good spells and felt we probably should have scored early in the second half, but really we came up short.

“We didn’t perform to the standards that we can do, but we’ve had a lot of games to play and a lot of travelling to do.

“This was one of the few games where we didn’t do enough to win.

“We’re not deflated about the situation. We can go to Gillingham and win and Charlton could go to Rochdale and lose – it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”