Start of a new era, tomorrow. Well, we bloody well hope so! After a traumatic week for everyone at the club, following the shambolic performance at Brentford last week and the eventual and inevitable departure of Paul Merson, it’s back to the real business of picking up some desperately needed League points at home, (if we can remember where that is, of course, as it seems so long since we played at Bescot in the League). Mick Halsall has a chance to pick a formation with players in the right positions and using tactics they can understand, so let’s hope he takes advantage!

The club have announced that Andy Oakes will now be fit for the clash with Scunthorpe, as the injury he picked up against Brentford was not as bad as first feared. Gerrard is suspended in defence, however, and there are doubts over the fitness of both Chris Westwood and Ian Roper, so new loan signing from Derby, Pablo Mills, will come straight in.

In the middle, Paul Devlin should be fit again, but we will be missing long term injury victim Darren Wrack, of course, and the suspended Leary, as he picked up (incredibly) his 10th yellow in only 21 starts this season last week.

Up front, as far as we know, everyone is fit.

If we don’t play a 4 4 2, I’ll be extremely surprised, and would expect us to line up something like:

Oakes, Pead, Roper or Dann, Mills, Fox, James or Devlin, Osborn or Keates, Smith or Keates, Demontagnac, Timm or Devlin, Barrowman or Constable or James.

Others in contention include Wright, of course, Gilmartin, Kinsella and Bradley, who is likely to be the central defensive cover, should Roper not be fit.

With this being a “must win” home game, I think the temptation will be to go with the extra creativity of Timm and Osborn in the centre of the park, but, with Halsall at the helm, we don’t have much to go on, in terms of his preferences of style. Whatever he wants, however, the imbalance in the squad has left him with innumerable choices in the centre of midfield and virtually none at the back or in left midfield!

Scunthorpe seem to have few selection worries, with club skipper Andy Crosby now back from suspension, although he may only make the bench, as, ominously, the Iron have been doing quite well without him.

Danger man for Scunthorpe is Billy Sharp, the League’s leading goal scorer (career record 27 league goals in just 43 starts for Rushden and Scunthorpe), which is a worry, considering our centre back partnership will be new to each other and could also be very inexperienced.

Predictions? Oh for something as simple as “new manager syndrome” taking over! Scunthorpe have played once already this week and lost, which ought to bode well, except that it was at leaders Colchester and it was 1 – 0, after they dominated the game and lost only because of missing all of the numerous chances they created. They are just one point ahead of us in the League, with a poorish away record (in that it’s marginally better than ours!), so they are one of the teams we must be trying to pull clear of, especially in view of the news of Rotherham’s possible liquidation, which, if it happened and their record expunged, would leave us second from bottom.
Oh, sod it, home win, even if it’s difficult to see where the goals will come from.