Robins: We have fighting chance

Mark Robins believes Scunthorpe are now within sight of safety after a vital 2-1 win in their relegation battle against Crawley.

It was only the second win in 11 games for the Iron, who move three points clear of the bottom four - and their opponents. Robins' men had a slice of fortune when a shot from Jordan Clarke was deflected past his own goalkeeper by Crawley full-back Ryan Dickson to open the scoring in the 19th minute. Leading scorer Paddy Madden then made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute with his 17th goal of the season before Izale McLeod reduced the visitor's arrears in the 76th minute to make it a nervous finish for Scunthorpe. "It's more about results than performances at this stage of the season, but I thought it as a pretty good performance as well," said Robins. "We created lots of chances and could have won by a bigger margin, but their goalkeeper has pulled off some good saves. "This was certainly a massive result for us, and one I think we deserved. "We have now got another big game coming up on Tuesday night at home to Port Vale. "If we prepare ourselves properly and do things right this week, we have a chance to secure our status in this division for next season." Robins confessed though that it was a nervy finish for his side after letting Crawley back into the game. "It was a poor goal for us to give away," he said. "It was a situation we should have dealt with and not given ourselves a heart attack in the closing stages. "But I thought we managed to see the game out well and deserved the points. "I was also pleased with our goals. "Jordan Clarke had already had one shot cleared off the line before the opening goal and the second was from a set-piece that we have been working hard on." There was little cheer though for Crawley boss Dean Saunders who had previously seen his side battle their way out of the relegation zone with just one defeat in their previous six games. Now, with just four games to go, they are back in trouble, out of the bottom four only on goal difference. "This was a game that we needed to win - or at least take a point from," said the Welshman. "With four games to go, we have not got to roll our sleeves up and see if we can try and win them all. "We suffered a big blow in the week when we lost the services of defender Richard Wood. "It meant we had to re-shuffle our back four - and I think it showed. "We have had to bring in Kelly Youga and play him in a brand new back four. "I thought he did well, but we could not cope with Scunthorpe. "We did manage to get a goal back and we tried for an equaliser. "But we did not move the ball quickly enough and overall did not do enough really."