Scunthorpe boss Andy Butler acknowledges anger from fans after his side suffered a 6-3 defeat to Boston on Saturday afternoon.
Boston United picked up their fourth straight National League win, to 11th in the table, with 39 points from 33 games played, but are 12 points from the playoff places, Scunthorpe meanwhile are 5th with 59 points from 30 games played.
Tom Cursons scored a hat-trick, while Jake Rooney netted twice and Matty Carson added one for the Pilgrims. Scunthorpe saw Callum Roberts scored twice and Daniel Whitehall also got one.
Half-time: Scunthorpe United 2-4 Boston United
Full-time: Scunthorpe United 3-6 Boston United
7′ Scunthorpe 0-1 BOSTON – Tom Cursons
21′ Scunthorpe 0-2 BOSTON – Matt Carson
23′ Scunthorpe 0-3 BOSTON – Jake Rooney
29′ SCUNTHORPE 1-3 Boston – Callum Roberts
45′ Scunthorpe 1-4 BOSTON – Jake Rooney
45+6′ SCUNTHORPE 2-4 Boston – Danny Whitehall (pen)
50′ Scunthorpe 2-5 BOSTON – Tom Cursons
65′ SCUNTHORPE 3-5 Boston – Callum Roberts (pen)
90+8′ Scunthorpe 3-6 BOSTON – Tom Cursons
Boston boss Paul Hurst said: “Fantastic result, crazy game. I’m genuinely on the side, and again, maybe this is me, but I still didn’t feel comfortable despite our kind of advantage for a lot of the time.
“So, getting towards the end, I thought the last 10 minutes, we did very well and kind of saw it out without any issues.
“But prior to that, we know that Scunthorpe, where they get a lot of the joy, Whitehall is a handful and then picking up second balls is very effective.
“So, they kept asking questions of us, but what I would say is I thought we always looked like we might get one on the sort of counter, and I think in the end, that decisive goal certainly was one of those occasions.”
A fourth consecutive win for @bostonunited under Paul Hurst
The Pilgrims beat Lincolnshire rivals Scunthorpe United 6-3 to move up to 11th in the table.
🎧Hear more on the Boston United podcast: https://t.co/Sa6UXep2Xt pic.twitter.com/RnpFWH54U8
— BBC Sport Lincolnshire (@BBCSportLincs) February 14, 2026
Scunthorpe boss Andy Butler said: “Really tough, really, really tough. We’ve conceded some poor goals, poor performance, probably the worst of the season by a long shot. Yeah, really disappointing, we’ve never really let go of them, so yeah, a lot of frustrations. We’ll move on, that’s all we can do.”
Interviewer: “I know you’ll say that a lot of poor goals in there, it felt like one of those days their chances just seemed to go in, didn’t they?”
Andy: “Yeah, I mean, I don’t think any goal was really well worked in the game, and that’s not me belittling their goals, I thought, but I just thought every single goal was preventable, so yeah, it’s a really frustrating afternoon for us. It’s one where you look back and think, did we prepare right, did we do everything we possibly could? We didn’t, it’s on the Davies to turn up.”
Interviewer: “When it goes 3-1 and then 4-2, just before half-time, I know it’s not ideal to have conceded three and four goals by that point, but I suppose you go into half-time thinking, if you get going and Alfie’s shot goes in, it could be a different game.”
Andy: “Yeah, I’ve mentioned half-time, it’s not over, we hit the post within five minutes, but then I think from that, they then scored the fifth, which really knocks the stuff in, and you can’t recover from that. We tried to put as many forward-thinking players on as we could, and it came a bit to scrap.
“If we lost by more than one goal, it was the worst, if we conceded another one, which we did, it was a non-event. To concede six goals at home in a derby is probably the worst result in terms of we’ve been here, and a lot of frustration from us. We need to make sure we right the wrongs on Tuesday.”
Interviewer: “Obviously, it’s a big game on Tuesday, Rochdale don’t come much tougher opponents, but the lads have, I know it’s back-to-back defeats, but the lads have always bounced back, particularly in these kind of games, haven’t they?”
Andy: “Yeah, and again, it’s going to be a tough game, but I don’t want people to get away from the fact we’ve still put ourselves in a great position, and two results don’t define our season. We’ve put ourselves in the top six by merit, and there’s going to be a lot of bumps along the way, which there are going to be. If we’re not at 100% in the game, we will get turned over, so it’s up to us now to recover, make sure we regroup, stick together.
“That’s everyone, not just players, staff, it’s the whole club, fans, everyone stick together, because there are going to be tough times. I think one of the first things we do is regroup games where we get it wrong, and unfortunately today was one of the games.
“But the bigger picture is around 59 points after 30 games, we’re just shy of two points per game, which is incredible to say where we’ve been and where we’ve come from, and we can only improve.
Interviewer: “If we got to this point and said we’ve only lost this amount of games, it’d be the first time we’ve lost back-to-back, you’d snap the hand off, wouldn’t you?”
Andy: “Yes, exactly that. Again, it’s about the bigger picture. Today it’ll hurt, it’ll frustrate, there’ll be a lot of anger, and that’s us players and staff and everyone together.
“I’m guessing the fans are angry, I’m guessing they’re frustrated, but the bigger picture is we’re still in a great position and we’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Here’s how social media reacted as Scunthorpe boss Andy Butler acknowledges anger from fans after a 6-3 defeat to Boston…
@markbeattie32: Let me guess , Boston weren’t all that , scunny were the better team , ref was awful , scunny should have had 2 pens and 5 of Boston goals were offside , is that that right
@backingherdeal: I don’t think I’ll ever attend a more batshit crazy game in my life
@danbil82: Nine goals conceded in the last two games – get them in for defending sessions tomorrow.
@mgell1s: An absolute fucking disgrace. Appalling from every player on the pitch. A result that could derail the whole season. An apology and response needed against… Rochdale. #UTI
@renny_overton: HAHAHAHA, thanks for coming lads. Tell Roberts and Whitehall to pick themselves up from the floor and stop crying
@filing_iron: A wake up call perhaps, Defending as bad we’ve seen under butler and a stationary midfield that was overran. Some of the overreactions however sum up the modern day football fan; clueless. Credit to Boston who did a number on us, Curzons looks a player.
@CalSUFC15: No words for that, absolutely shameful. At least we aren’t away at top of the league on Tuesday…
@capsnbovril: Did anyone else feel the change he made when we got the third (Carlton for Westbrooke) well and truly ended any chance of us getting back into that game? I get it, we needed goals, but for me we lost control. There was 30 mins to go, genuinely thought we’d get at least 2 more.
@jakesufc_: calmed down abit since this. mentally i won’t lie ive got a fair bit going on inside my head at the minute and im not in the greatest of places. this week has been awful and the club this season has brought me so much happiness. just felt really disappointed. we go again #UTI
@happyangler123: If they arnt in training in the morning there’s something seriously wrong , I can take losing but that was embarrassing to say the least . Butler has questions to answer
@Ethan_short9: Defence a joke, only Evans and Horton been quality throughout this season. Reinforcements should be in defence not a ST to then play them LW. Odd recruitment choices recently
@dxnl1nd_: Every single one of their goals was avoidable. Defensively simply not good enough. Rochdale will tear us apart if we don’t buck our ideas up before Tuesday!
@cmacd57: I can’t recall ever seeing us concede 6 at home. Simply pathetic, especially the defending.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login