"Any old iron, any old iron, any any any old iron"
(Traditional song by Charles Collins,
*composed in 1911 and recorded by numerous *
performers including Peter Sellers in 1957)
We welcome Neil Cox’s team to Bescot as we look to resume our recent good form, hoping that the Salford City game was just a “blip”. Scunthorpe are having a difficult season, currently in 20th place and nervously looking over their shoulder at a resurgent Southend United (DWWDW). It’s indicative of how inconsistent this League 2 can be when you consider that both bottom two sides (Stevenage and Southend Utd) have better current form than top-of-the-table Newport County!
Speaking of current form, the Iron’s looks like this:-
December 5th Leyton Orient (H) Won 2-0
December 8th Colchester United (H) Lost 0-1
December 12th Southend United (A) Lost 1-0
December 15th Barrow (H) Won 2-1
December 19th Grimsby Town (A) Lost 1-0
December 26th Mansfield Town (H) Lost 2-3
Scunthorpe have a proud history of producing footballers who went on to grace bigger stages - just think Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence, Neil Cox (current manager), Ian Botham, and Richard Money (wonder what happened to him?). There are others who have featured for both clubs, including:-
Steve Bains (1980-82) Bradford City to us, then to Scunthorpe Utd
John Davies (1958-61) Scunthorpe Utd to us, played 65 games, scored 16 goals from the wing
Ron Howells (1963-64) Scunthorpe Utd to us, banned as part of a bribes scandal…
Bjarni Larusson (1998-00) Hibernian to us, then moved to Scunthorpe Utd
Darrell Clarke may well have tinkering forced upon him for this game. The recent injuries to Zak Jules and Rory Holden have certainly had an impact, and that’s on top of the longer term absentees George Nurse and Callum Cockerill-Mollett. Although Wes McDonald played at Salford he seemed to be below par - possibly the pre-match rumours of injury were true, although it looks more likely that Salford had done their homework on him and decided to concentrate on snuffing out his threat. Danny Guthrie’s footballing brain appears to be somewhat ahead of his physical ability to keep pace, etc. etc…
Prediction? With the three teams immediately above us having away fixtures on Tuesday this game gives us the opportunity to occupy a place in the play-off zone rather than being in the chasing pack, and looking at Scunthorpe’s form this really should be a home win. Something like 2-0 would be very welcome - Elijah and Scrimaldo (this might be his last game for us) to score.
UTS
