Paul Hurst takes pride in Scunthorpe’s fightback - 7M sport

Paul Hurst takes pride in Scunthorpe’s fightback



Posted Sunday, January 19, 2020 by PA

Paul Hurst takes pride in Scunthorpe’s fightback

Scunthorpe boss Paul Hurst hailed his side’s character after their two-goal fightback to draw 2-2 at Bradford.

John McAtee’s first goal for the club completed the comeback in the 74th minute after Bradford had led 2-0 after 19 minutes.

Hurst was delighted with the response from his players as they bounced back from successive defeats.

“I’m struggling to think of a better performance and the character shown,” he said.

“It could have easily been questioned after recent results and it would have been easy to have given up.

“I wouldn’t have been happy with that and thankfully it didn’t happen. We continued passing the ball and dominated large parts of the game.

“When you get a big crowd here, that’s fantastic when it’s going your way. But when it’s not, that can be difficult and I think it got that way towards the end.

“We scored two very good goals and it was just a shame we couldn’t get that winner I felt the performance deserved.”

Goalkeeper Luke McGee, making his Bradford debut on loan from Portsmouth, pulled off a crucial early save to deny George Miller.

James Vaughan hit a post for the home side before they struck twice in the space of three minutes. Hope Akpan hit the opener then James Vaughan made it two as Scunthorpe were temporarily down to 10 men with defender Jordan Clarke injured.

Hurst said on Clarke: “The diagnosis is not looking good but we’re certainly talking months. Let’s hope that’s wrong.

“We’re struggling. Rory McArdle is out injured and it looks like it might be Junior Brown’s last game for us as well.”

Scunthorpe pulled one back through Alex Gilliead from 25 yards before McAtee levelled.

Bradford were booed at the final whistle and manager Gary Bowyer was left frustrated at what he watched.

“The game doesn’t end at 3.25pm and there was a hell of a lot of football left to play,” he said. “You’ve got to give credit to Scunthorpe who played well.

“But when we got ourselves in that lead it’s something we should have done better. The manner of both the goals we conceded were poor.

“We’ve been so good defensively and I wasn’t impressed. But it happens throughout the course of the season that one or two have dips and you concede soft goals.

“We had to dig in at certain times and I was pleased with how Luke McGee settled in and the saves he made, in the first half in particular.

“I thought his starting position for the first one was excellent and he had to do another when we didn’t defend the ball very well.

“He was probably called upon too early for my liking but it shows what a good goalkeeper he is.”

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