Scunthorpe skipper felt scoreline 'flattered' Cobblers

Scunthorpe United skipper Harry Davis felt the 2-0 scoreline was a little unfair on his team after their defeat to the Cobblers at Sixfields on Saturday.

It was backs-to-the-wall for United following Emmanuel Onariase's 20th-minute red card and they held out for a while before Danny Rose broke the deadlock on 64 minutes.

Scunthorpe had their best spell of the game after falling behind but they struggled to trouble home goalkeeper Liam Roberts before Sam Hoskins scored a second in stoppage-time.

“It’s been a disappointing day, with going down to ten men so early on affecting us," said Davis. "We did well to try and get to half-time 0-0.

"That was positive and pleasing because it’s always difficult here (at Sixfields). They’re direct, physical and have a big side. I thought we would be able to reorganise at half-time, but we didn’t get going second-half. We looked leggy and didn’t keep the ball long enough.

“With ten men you’re going to do a lot of defending and we had to. It was disappointing to concede the first goal as we could have done better as a whole, especially as a back four. The one at the end flatters them a bit, although they had a lot of possession.

“We did grow into it in the last ten minutes and we had a couple of corners and a couple of half chances from which I thought we might get something. Overall, a disappointing day. We’ll look at it and try to learn from it for next week.”

Davis had no issue with Onariase's red card, but had Scunthorpe kept 11 men on the pitch, he felt they would have got something from the game.

"I think if we keep 11 men on the pitch, I’m pretty confident in getting something out of the game," he added.

"As I said, that didn’t happen and from then on, you’ve got to keep a clean sheet with ten men and we didn’t quite do that. The first goal was unacceptable, the second one we were trying to stretch and get an equaliser.

“I thought at the time the goal was offside but I’ve just seen it back and he’s onside so I’ve got no qualms with that and the red card was the right decision.

"I’m not going to blame Manny for it. There’s a lot of stuff that happens before it gets to that point. It did change the game but it’s not just Manny - a few things could have been done better in the lead up to being sent off.

"It makes it difficult for us with ten men coming here. It’s all about how you react to it and we didn’t do well enough second-half."