REACTION: No surprises for contented boss

He expected a tough, tight game and got one, with the Iron’s late equaliser ensuring parity ahead of the second leg at the AESSEAL New York Stadium next Wednesday.

Warne said: “Scunthorpe played us quite well and they were really quick on the counter-attack. Our set pieces weren’t as good as I would like, but apart from that it was as I expected and if you asked Dawsy (Scunthorpe boss Nick Daws) he would say the same thing.

“It was funny. I said to him on 90 minutes, ‘would you take a 2-2 now?’ He said, ‘cor, would I. Absolutely.’”

Ryan Williams gets a lift from team-mate Joe Mattock.

Warne declined to criticise Michael Ihiekwe for his own goal that handed the visitors their first equaliser, crediting the centre-half for at least thing to “do the right thing” and clear the danger. He also had no qualms with Scunthorpe’s scrambled leveller, preferring to instead dwell on a good result.

“To come away 2-1 up would have been a great result but I can’t be greedy,” he said. “Scunthorpe played well and they’re a really good side. To match them on their own turf was good for us and we can take credit for that and hopefully we can win on Wednesday night.”

Goal scorer Jon Taylor (dead leg) and Richie Towell (sore back) were both taken off as a precaution.

Added Warne: “If this had been a league game I would have slammed Caolan Lavery or David Ball up top when I could smell a bit of blood, but I had to try to think of the bigger picture.

“The players are all fresh for Wednesday night and I can change it as I see fit.”