Scunthorpe boss Neil Cox reckons his players will now believe they are as good as he thinks they are following a 5-2 Sky Bet League Two win at Harrogate

The improving Iron racked up a third-straight win on the road thanks to goals from Abo Eisa (2), Emmanuel Onariase, Ryan Loft and Aaron Jarvis.

Jack Muldoon had earlier given the hosts hope with a first-half equaliser and eighth league goal of the season, but Connor Hall’s stoppage-time effort proved a meaningless consolation.

A delighted Cox said: “I need to give the boys a lot of credit, because we did a lot of work on how they would play. We worked on getting our final-third entries into the box and put them under a lot of pressure.

“We also stopped them playing forward to their big man. I said to our lads before the game that we have got to do better going forward and I thought we did tonight.

“We haven’t won enough battles this season all over the pitch either, but I thought we won everyone in this game.

“I’m disappointed that we conceded two goals and, even though I thought neither was a free-kick, we still need to defend them better.

“But I’m really happy that we stood up and went again when it went 1-1 because we could have collapsed.

“I knew that was in us – I don’t know if the boys did, but they have shown now that they can play at a tempo and play forward-thinking football.”

Harrogate have now conceded nine goals in their last two matches, following Saturday’s 4-0 thumping at the hands of League One Blackpool, with manager Simon Weaver calling for his team to demonstrate a “harder edge”.

He said: “We have to defend better. We go through what it takes to mark a man, but quite a few of the goals we have conceded come from set-pieces.

“There are a lot of big men in League Two and we need to have a harder edge and be more stubborn in the box.

“I think we were dealt a harsh lesson.

“Scunthorpe looked refreshed having had no game at the weekend and we were leggy and second best throughout which led to a score line that we’re not accustomed to, but this is a good new level we are playing at with a relentless run of fixtures.

“We still need a positive, resilient mindset, however, because I thought some of our players had resigned faces after just five minutes and only two or three, like Jack Muldoon, Connor Hall and Brendan Kiernan, shone.”