HARRY Kewell blamed a lack of fight after Oldham were brought crashing back down to earth by lowly Scunthorpe.

The Iron had lost their previous five in the league and eight in all competitions but were worthy winners at Boundary Park courtesy of second-half strikes from Jacob Bedeau and Kevin Van Veen.

Boss Kewell said: “We created a few chances in the opening 20 minutes and at that point we were looking quite comfortable.

“However, we then let our standards slip and we didn’t really do enough of the nasty things well enough.

“We weren’t fighting hard enough for second balls and we didn’t just keep it simple.

“We then had a couple of chances early in the second half, before we went to sleep after a corner and they score.

“After that we didn’t really look much of a threat.

“They wanted it more than us and that’s why they’ve gone away with the three points.

“We were chasing it towards the end, but the ball just wouldn’t drop for us.

“I can’t fault the overall effort from some of my players, but it’s disappointing because we’ve failed to build on three good performances in our previous three games.

“We just have to keep our chins up and go again now.”

Oldham went close early on when Dylan Bahamboula dribbled through before seeing an angled strike well saved by Mark Howard.

Scunthorpe replied with defender Bedeau seeing his looping header nodded off the line by Danny Rowe.

Abo Eisa then forced Oldham goalkeeper Ian Lawlor into a terrific save as he dived to keep out a low, well-struck effort.

Shortly before the interval, Lawlor was superb again as he produced an instinctive stop to keep out Ryan Loft’s scissor-kick.

Scunthorpe struck on the hour mark when an unmarked Bedeau controlled Van Veen’s cross before tucking neatly past Lawlor.

Oldham almost levelled with 13 minutes left when Rowe’s goal-bound strike was deflected off target by his team-mate, sub Bobby Grant.

Van Veen then crashed home from 25 yards with 12 minutes left after latching on to Loft’s smart back-heel and the game was up for Latics. 

The result leaves Kewell's side 20th in the League Two table.