Mason O'Malley's late free-kick sealed the win in a game during which a number of players received valuable game time, as Scunthorpe prepare for the new League Two season, which gets underway with a home game against Swindon Town on Saturday.
Cox said: "I thought we passed the ball really well, until the final third when our final pass let us down. We want to create chances and overloads, and the lads worked really hard. The older boys got on with it in a professional manner.
"In the second half we passed the ball a little bit better, showed a bit more bravery and won it through a fantastic free-kick from Mase.
"It was a really good work-out for the lads, with them all getting valuable game time. The three Under-18s (Harrison Poulter, Ben Franklin and Oliver Lobley) came on too and didn't look out of place. For the 20 minutes Harrison was on, he was excellent and caused problems. (Academy manager) Tony Daws is doing an excellent job and believes in them, and this football club is trying to bring them through.
"Gally (Dan Gallimore) played right-back, while Fin (Shrimpton) did a job for us at centre-half, and played really well after getting an early booking. Jai Rowe is just getting better and better as a centre-back and I'm going to use him in that role this season. He will fill in at right-back at times, but if he wants to progress and become a better player I feel he needs to play in the centre."
See much more from Neil Cox on iFollow Iron.
