"It was a right kick between the legs," said Adkins.
"Could we improve on the last two home games where we hadn't scored a goal? The answer to that is yes.
"I thought we played some great football. We've got an average age of 22 and we need to learn from these situations.
"We moved the ball very quickly and we kept Stoke City pinned back for the whole game.
"No-one said it was going to be easy but I think we've shown that we've improved on the last two home performances. What we now need is for the results to marry up with the performances.
"When you get yourself in front at the end you think you've gone and done it."
Adkins was unhappy with the refereeing performance, feeling that the first two of Stoke's goals had an hint of offside about them and that United should have been awarded a penalty.
""I've looked at the video and for the first goal, the player is offside in front of Joe Murphy and the second goal, although Paul Hayes has put it in, they've got two players offside," he claimed.
"It was a clear-as-day penalty, but to be fair to the referee, he probably can't see it. But that's life and we're improving. We can't change the decision.
"Sometimes you take a 0-0 draw and get a point over an entertaining game where you lose. We have to be allowed to make mistakes."
Stoke manager Tony Pulis paid credit to Scunthorpe, but insisted his side were deserved wnners.
"It was a really good game, Sunthorpe really had a go. It's a tight ground, they watered the pitch before the game and it was quick, and they had a lot of possession and got a lot of crosses in," he said.