Boss sees Scunthorpe potential

Mark Robins was left with mixed feelings after Scunthorpe battled to claim a point with 10 men in an eventful 2-2 draw at Port Vale.

Robins was delighted with the effort of his players, but disappointed with his team's defending and the manner in which former Vale winger Jennison Myrie-Williams got sent off. He said: "The players gave me everything and if they keep doing that I can't complain. "We were very good in the second-half and I felt we had broken the back of the game. We were creating chances and in a position to go on and win. "But both of the goals we conceded were poor and I wasn't best pleased with the sending off. He had already been booked and left the ground for his second booking. "Overall there was some good stuff and some frustrating stuff. We scored two good goals, but there were mistakes all over the place for the two we let in. "If we can't improve our defending with the players we've got, we will replace them. "But as long as the players can look me right in the eye and put in that much effort, I'm confident we will be alright." The visitors took a fourth-minute lead when Luke O'Neill skinned Carl Dickinson to cross from the right and Neal Bishop steered in a right-footed shot from six yards. But Vale levelled three minutes later with Ben Williamson getting in front of Scunthorpe keeper Bobby Olejnik to glide in a close-range header from Mark Marshall's cross. Both defences continued to struggle and Vale were indebted to a magnificent goal-line clearance by Ryan McGivern to deny Lyle Taylor in the 36th minute. Vale took a 70th-minute lead through substitute Chris Birchall after he had replaced Louis Dodds five minutes earlier. Olejnik could only beat out a powerful shot from Adam Yates and Birchall smashed a six-yard volley straight between the keeper's legs. Scunthorpe were really up against it three minutes later when Myrie-Williams was given his marching orders. But the visitors equalised in the 79th minute when O'Neill whipped over a terrific cross and Taylor glanced a header beyond Chris Neal. It took a brilliant save by Neal to deny Taylor an unlikely winner just a minute later. Vale's interim manager Rob Page said: "It's a bitter pill to swallow and I've just made my feelings clear to the players. "From the first whistle there were aspects of our play I wasn't happy about. We gave away a sloppy goal early on and struggled to get into gear. "We did show the character to fight back and when Chris Birchall scored it should have been the winner. But instead of dictating the play against 10 men, we sat back. "We've got to learn from it. We shouldn't be giving away silly free-kicks and when crosses come into our box we have to lock on to the men we are marking. "We will be working hard on that again in training on Thursday, but if it means we have to make changes, we will do. The players know my feelings."