Source: Iron-Bru.net
Source: FOOTYMAD
Swann: We need to improve
Peter Swann has issued a statement after the 4-1 defeat at York City. If anybody thought football wasn't a rollercoaster of feelings and emotions, they haven't been watching us this season! It seems that every time we think a corner is turned, we get bitten and bitten hard. What we have to do is come out of these games stronger, both mentally and physically and understand the reasons behind our mistakes. After a disappointing result against Exeter I thought we were superb in gaining the two results against a rampant Hartlepool and gritty Fleetwood. In fact you could say that those three fixtures were our hardest run of three games all season and that gaining six points actually was a good return. The problem is we expect more and want more from this team of players and management and that is very understandable as the bar is raised and as we move up the league table. If any of us thought this was going to be an easy league or we could throw money at it and we would get back up straight away, we surely understand that is not the case now. A bounce back and win at the weekend could paper over the cracks, but the underlying issue of performance and lack of consistency will still be there. We really have not got going, we really have not played a full ninety minutes of comfortable football and although some of our performances have been defensively superb, luck has been with us on numerous occasions. Luck plays an important part of any football club’s campaign, but I do not want to use it all up just yet! People have asked me how the first few months have been and if I am enjoying it? I answer, yes and then remember the agonising last ten minutes against Hartlepool and Fleetwood and wonder what I have let myself in for! You see, when I arrived I was not a fan, but I followed the club’s results and had links with certain Directors, thinking one day I would perhaps be a Chairman of a league club where I could develop a legacy to be proud of. The problem now is, I am most certainly a fan, 100% committed to this club and even more determined to make it work, which means I will not stop until the club is promoted and secures it’s place in the higher divisions. The agony just gets a bit larger as your passion for the football club grows. A lot of you, the fans, have met me and you all know, how passionate I am towards this club, but sometimes you have to put that passion to the side and look at it in different ways. We actually came within a game of going top after just 14 games and in reality, we should be there already if we had converted those draws and leads into wins. The league is the most competitive it has ever been, but let's not detract from the fact we should be leading this division, it is there for the taking, we have to improve. If you had said to me, we would be three points off the top of the league after 14 games, I would have took it, so let's not be too despondent, even though we know we should have done better in some of those games. Some players have struggled to adapt to this league and we need more consistent performances from others, but it will come. This team is quite capable of doing that, you have seen it and I have seen it, they give 100% every game, but sometimes it just doesn't work, it happens. We all make mistakes, we all make wrong choices, what we have to do is minimise those bad decisions and get over it, work hard and get it right next time. This team will do that and we will see improvement, we have to, if we have any ambition to get out of this league and deliver to you the fans. The players have the ideal opportunity at Chesterfield on Saturday and against Grimsby the following Saturday in the FA Cup, what a game that promises to be! I have been involved in games against Grimsby, with Trinity, so I know how passionate they can be and always take a good crowd away with them. When they are at home it can be a great atmosphere and to add nearly 2000 Scunthorpe fans to that will make it electric. It is the FA Cup and add to that a bit of rivalry, we should see a cracker! Both teams are followed by some great supporters and I know a few people at the club, so we are really looking forward to catching up and creating a bit of history, 3-2 to the mighty iron sounds about right! So, we know we need to improve, we know as a team we need to prove it on the field of play and we need everyone to step up to the plate. Let's get on with it and make some new memories, the winning ones, that is! Up the Iron.
