The Fat Controller reporting from Scunthorpe.

The home side, if anything, started the brighter of the two sides, but that didn’t last long, as Scunthorpe decided to help out the under pressure Paul Merson by pressing the self destruct button.

First of all, Jorge Leitao twisted and turned into the area, only to to brought down from behind for a clear penalty. Matty Fryatt duly stroked the spot kick into the bottom corner, as usual.

Leitao was injured in this incident and had to go off not long afterwards, but this meant a change of formation, as Merson went further forward as we adopted a 4 4 1 1, giving the team better shape.

Scunthorpe decided to help the cause even more when Simon Osborn produced a bad foul on Ryan, for which he was rightly boooked, but the home player got up and elbowed Ossie in the face, receiving a stright red card.

The rest of the half was something of a none event, with Scunthorpe having the better of the possession, but Ruddy being vitrually unemployed, with Smith and Osborn controlling the middle of the park.