Iron manager Neil Cox spoke on Monday before Tuesday’s tricky trip to Newport, revealing good news about centre back Manny Onariase.
The defender has struggled throughout the season with recurring injuries, but rose to become a bit of a fans favourite during his prolonged spells in the team.
Despite picking up a knock at the weekend, Manny looks set to start on Tuesday, whilst there wasn’t as promising news for his fellow defender Jai Rowe.
“Manny seems fine, so that’s good. Jai has had a really big bang on the head and it looks more like his eye which has bruised up a lot, so we will have a look tomorrow before we name the side.
“Other than that, everybody else came out of the Walsall game okay and we’ll see who’s fresh ahead of the match.
“We’ve trained on the pitch this morning and worked on things that we expect from Tuesday night (against Newport). We’ve also worked on what we need to be better with that we haven’t done well over the last three or four games, and are focusing on what we need to do. We’re being positive about us and focusing on nobody else.
“We’ve gone to some good places away from home and won this season, and put some proper shifts in. The players and all the staff know what we need to do. We just have to focus on us, and on the set-plays in both boxes against a good Newport side who try and play a little bit on a difficult surface.
“We’re looking to be positive, play forward, work hard as a team and when we get in possession we need to make sure we keep the ball better.”
Newport are fighting to maintain their current spot in the League Two Play Offs, and will provide tough competition for Cox’s men. Bettingapps365.com‘s current odds of 5/1 for an upset don’t look worth touching.
In other injury news, Jem Karacan should be fit to start after being consigned to the bench at the weekend.
Cox told Scunthorpe’s iFollow account: “Jem was just feeling something so we had to be careful with him, as we couldn’t afford to play him and then have him come off after 20 minutes, and risk injury.
“He played the last 15-20 minutes on Saturday, and has trained again this morning, which is good for us and his attitude of getting stuck into people in the right way was good. The boys trained really well on Monday and we’re focused on what we need to do.
“Gilly (Alex Gilliead, who came off early in the second-half on Saturday) has only missed two games all season and he just felt a little bit leggy, but he was fresh this morning.
“I’ve had a good conservation with him and he’s been telling all the lads about how we need to be better and be focused on what we need to do.”
Any Old Iron 