Peter Cavanagh says the New Year’s Day trip to Glanford Park is an opportunity for the side to “give a better account” of themselves.
It has been just over a month since the two sides met in the league at Spotland, with the Iron emerging as 4-0 winners on the night in a game where Dale were reduced to nine men and conceded a spot kick.
Cav is expecting a difficult encounter, but is looking forward to the fixture.
“Scunthorpe are a good team,” said the Dale skipper. “They came here and obviously there were a couple of debatable sendings off for us so we didn’t really get a true reflection of ourselves.
“It’s certainly a game that we’ve earmarked to give a better account of ourselves and see where we are with regards to the top two or three in the league because we certainly think Scunthorpe will be there.
“They’ve got a lot of players who came down with them from League One in the summer and they’ve signed a bit of experience as well so they’ll have the know how in the last ten games or so of the season.”
Dale finished 2013 on a high following Sunday’s 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers and Cav admits the squad is pleased with what has been achieved so far this season.
“We’re really pleased with the first half of the season. The Gaffer had set us a mini target of getting 40 points after 23 games, which we’ve managed to achieve.
“There’s still a long way to go but we’ve seen every team now and there’s nothing to fear. If we can replicate what we achieved in the first half of the season then we’ll be close enough to achieving what we wanted to achieve.
“I see my team mates everyday in training and I’ve got the utmost faith in them all, not just the eleven who start, but the squad as whole. The squad is deep and the Gaffer really has got an embarrassment of riches at the moment. I think if we can get a little bit of luck I think we can be there or thereabout.”