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"It was a great goal from Martin Paterson that put us in front and Jim Goodwin showed his Premier League pace to race through and score a second. We might be favourites with the bookies to go down but this group of players believe they can succeed at this level. For them, it is a terrific platform to go out and show what they can do."
Adkins spoke about the spirit in the camp at Scunthorpe, worryingly Steve Cotterill expressed concern over the lack of it in the Burnley side. Seeing the game in exactly the same way as Adkins did he said: "We could have won the game in the first twenty 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 it. So I am a little bit disappointed with our fighting spirit and all in all Scunthorpe probably deserved the 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 to them. They are a team that has become used to winning and after they got their first goal they kept it very tight and didn't give us too many opportunities. It was their day and we have got work to do."
Speaking about Clarke Carlisle, who made his debut for the Clarets just two days after completing his signing from Watford, he said: "I thought Clarke had an excellent debut. He would be one of our shining lights 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."