Scunthorpe boss Graham Alexander wanted more against Posh

Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2018 by PA

Graham Alexander saw his Scunthorpe side twice battle back from behind at Peterborough but was still frustrated to drop two points.

The Iron kept themselves in the play-off places thanks to a deadlock at the ABAX Stadium earned by levellers from two recent loan recruits.

Alexander’s men were trailing after just 85 seconds as Marcus Maddison ended a three-month wait for a League One goal with a classy Posh opener.

Ivan Toney restored parity with his second Iron goal after arriving from Newcastle last month, but Scunthorpe conceded again to Junior Morias in stoppage time at the end of the opening half.

They came up with another response on the hour as Ryan Yates marked his first start after being borrowed from Nottingham Forest with a leveller, steering in a Conor Townsend cross.

And that is how it stayed as both goalkeepers pulled off smart saves in stoppage time. Maddison was the first to be denied a dramatic winner by Matt Gilks, before Scunthorpe substitute Cameron McGeehan’s blockbuster was kept out by a flying Jonathan Bond stop.

Alexander said: “I thought we were superb and deserved the three points if I’m being honest.

“We know Peterborough have some excellent players and the first goal showed that. There’s nothing worse as an away team than conceding a first-minute goal, but I’ve never had to question the mentality of my team.

“It was difficult, but I thought we regained our composure really quickly and dominated proceedings. We scored a fantastic equaliser but, because of our attacking spirit, we gave away a poor goal to find ourselves behind again.

“In the second half we just carried on where we left off. We had some great chances, scored another good goal and we were excellent.

“I’m so pleased with our all-round performance. I thought we looked like the home team.”

Posh remain five points off the play-off places and boss Grant McCann said: “It was a good game involving two good teams. It is probably a fair result on reflection.

“We were excellent in patches of the game and need to build on that for the run-in, but I have to admit I’m really disappointed with the way we switched off in the lead up to Scunthorpe’s second goal.

“I always felt we were the likelier team to win the game as we created some good chances, and we’ll take the positives from it.

“It is clear we are close to being a very good side. We just need to get a bit more positivity back and have that edge where we follow up one goal with another.

“We still have huge belief that we can get into the top six and we know we’re close enough to do that.”