Manager Says-Scunthorpe 2-0 Burnley

I suppose it was inevitable we would be the fall guys as Scunthorpe won their first game at this level in 43 years.

The gaffer however was clearly disappointed after the Clarets went down 2-0 to the Championship new boys at Glanford Park yesterday.The fighting spirit in particular seemed to be lacking according to Steve.

Steve Cotterill said about the match:

'We could have won the game in the first 20 minutes and for that period of time they were hanging on in there.

'We gave them some encouragement to come back into the game and could have gone in at half time 2-0 down.

'We were marginally better in the second half, but not enough and I am disappointed with the result.

'We didn't want to get done on a quick free kick, like they had last week at Charlton and we have been done with that.

'So I am a little bit disappointed with our fighting spirit and all in all Scunthorpe probably deserved their win.

'It probably wasn't ideal being their first game here because their crowd were up for it, but having said that we have to take our hats off.

'They are a team that has become used to winning and after they got the first goal they kept it very tight and didn't give us too many opportunities.

'It's their day and we have got work to do.'

'I thought Clarke had an excellent debut.

'He would be one of our shining lights today and it was good because he came into the dressing room and he had something to say right away, which I thought was good leadership.'

I have some concerns about Steve Cotterill these days, when you read some of the garbage posted about him still on some of the Clarets messageboards. It seems a certain verbose element of fans are determined not to forget last season and that awful 19 winless streak. They also conveniently forget the two good spells either side of that.

These fans seem to be waiting to pounce when we lose and get back on their soapbox wanting a managerial change. Even when we win, and lets face it we have had an excellent pre-season and season start against WBA, they seem reluctant to give credit where credit is due. I sometimes have to pinch myself when I realise we have beaten WBA twice in under five months. Reading some of the comments you would think we were hopeless in all departments. God help the Baggies then!

I just hope Steve does not read some of the barbed comments and if he does that he has steel underpants on. It is totally uncalled for in a lot of cases and some fans it seems need an injection of the strongest anti-depressants before they start bringing down some of the more positive fans amongst us.

Hells bells, we have lost one match and the season has only just started. Its too early to start getting the knives out. Sometimes I think the gaffer is in an impossible position. I guess the only way he will prove his critics wrong is to get this team playing consistently well and start to press for a play-offs place.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than for this to happen but its all in Steve's court and I wish him all the luck.

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