Gregan vows to put things right

SEAN GREGAN . . . confident Athletic can recover from their blip.

MICHAEL YARWOOD’S weekly look behind the scenes at Boundary Park
CAPTAIN Sean Gregan is desperate to lead a recovery mission tonight when Athletic face League One pacesetters Scunthorpe.

The recent slide in form has been a shock to the system at Boundary Park, with Gregan admitting some “dross” was played against Swindon on Saturday.

Athletic have taken just six points from seven matches, whereas Scunthorpe are on a glorious unbeaten run featuring nine victories and two draws.

Gregan, however, outlined the determination in Athletic’s ranks.

He said: “At the moment we aren’t scoring goals and we are too easy to score against, so we need to get back to the performances we had at Leeds and Tranmere.

“I’m not being negative, that’s just an honest assessment, but we’ll be right back up there if we take four or six points from two home games this week.

“That’s the target, and it’s not like we are on a long losing run or struggling near the bottom.

“There’s no doom and gloom around the place, we just need to address it before things get any worse.

“We’ve gone two games without scoring and defensively we haven’t been good enough, so that’s something myself, Reuben Hazell and whoever plays at full-back need to put right against Scunthorpe.

“We are focused on improving, and we’ve got a chance of doing that against a team on an unbelievable run.

“We are unbeaten at home, so we want to get the dross from Saturday out of the way – every team gets beaten, but the manner of the goals we conceded wasn’t good enough.

“At the moment there are too many individual errors. The goal against Leicester was my fault, then Norm (Mark Crossley) made a mistake at Bristol Rovers and we were poor again at Swindon.

“We need to sort it out because people can feel a bit down, and it’s up to myself, Norm and Andy Liddell to pull the younger lads through.

“We are still in a good position, so hopefully this is our blip for the season and we’ll start kicking on again this week.

“When you’re on a little run like ours you want a bit of luck, maybe like the ball going in off somebody’s bum or back.

“But you make your own luck by working very hard, and all the lads are aiming to play our way through it.”

Scunthorpe are on course for their second promotion in three years as they were League One champions before coming straight back down from the Championship last season.

Where they once had Billy Sharp (now at Sheffield United) and Andy Keogh (Wolves) to provide the goals, it’s now Gary Hooper and Martin Hayes who are terrorising defences.

Hooper cost £175,000 from Southend and has repaid the investment by scoring nine times in 13 league games.

And Hayes, a longer-serving player in his second spell at the club, is close behind with eight in all competitions.

Scunthorpe, however, aren’t just about firepower as they also hold a defensive record which is bettered only by Leicester in League One.

Highly-rated ’keeper Joe Murphy – once a trialist at Boundary Park – produced an astonishing display against Athletic when the sides last met.




TONIGHT’S LEAGUE

ONE FIXTURES


Brighton v Leicester; Carlisle v Hartlepool; Crewe v Peterborough; Huddersfield v Yeovil; Leyton Orient v MK Dons; Millwall v Hereford; Northampton v Colchester; Athletic v Scunthorpe; Southend v Leeds; Stockport v Tranmere; Walsall v Swindon.