It's over.

Iron celebrate Hawley's goal

So I took my little brother to Bury last night optimistic that we could capitalise on Bury's woes and gain our first away win since January. Sadly, it was not to be.
With this loss and Oldham's win against high flying Yeovil (blooming typical!) we are all but mathematically relegated. I have kept believing until last night that we could escape but it is now over. It's such a shame the fashion that we went down to a 8th loss in 9 last night though...

Relegation is always hard to take but if you fight right until the end and it's still not enough then you accept the fact that you was not good enough for that league and acknowledge where due the effort given by the players. However it is 10x harder to accept relegation when you go down without a whimper, without 80% of the players looking like they give a toss. The latter is the conclusion I have come to after last nights second half performance, which I might add was the worst I have EVER seen Scunthorpe play. Ever.

We all know Bury's off field battles with financial difficulties have seen a negative effect on the pitch and they have suffered a horrific end to the season, even losing to rivals Oldham at the weekend. We played a team who could only field 2 substitutes and had multiple players outfield who were inexperienced and probably reserve standard when they actually have a fully fit team. Bury had one vital attribute within their squad which this Scunthorpe side has been so dearly lacking throughout this disastrous season - Passion.

We started okay and got on top of Bury throughout the first half and deservedly led at half time through a Karl Hawley flick of the head. It was not a pretty game and certainly not exciting but I sat in my seat at half time and did not give two hoots about all of that, I just wanted a win. Apart from the Hawley goal our only other notable chance was when a Forde through ball was chested down by Matty Godden but he disappointingly fired over from just outside the box. News had been fed around the Iron faithful that Oldham were leading at half time but Colchester were losing. "Maybe we could drag Colchester into this relegation dogfight" I thought to myself. Bring on the second half...

For the first 15 minutes of the second half although Bury had edged a little more into the tie I was still comfortable and could not for the life of me see where a Bury goal would come from. Then for me the turning point in the game happened. A great Iron break led to Nolan passing the ball across the box to an oncoming Duffy who SHOULD have put it away in my opinion. That should have been 2-0, game over.
After this Bury grew more and more into the game and then there was a 5 minute spell where we conceded free-kick after free-kick until the all important one (from a Bury perspective anyway) which was fired in wonderfully by Jonson Clarke-Harris. Back to square one as a draw was not enough but surely we wouldn't go behind and conceding would be the wake-up call the Iron's players needed? No. NO NO NO NO NO. As little as 2 minutes later rent boy Nicky Ajose had slotted away Bury's second and more importantly the final goal of this fixture. I knew our abuse of him at Chesterfield last season would come back and haunt us (he is still absolutely useless though).

So that was it for me and I finally accepted what has maybe been inevitable for quite a while - Relegated. I stood and clapped the players after the full time whistle and did think to myself do they really deserve this applause? I continued to applaud as despite the wastes of space we have in our squad there are still players there who care about Scunthorpe United and they deserved a clap. Not naming those who deserved a clap... *cough cough* Michael Collins, Tom Newey, Jimmy Ryan & Eddie Nolan.

As I walked back to Bury tram station I had a chance to reflect on things and also saw people posting on Twitter that they were to stop supporting the Iron now they have gone down. You're having a laugh right? If you cannot support a club when they are at their worst then you sure as hell don't deserve to support them at their best. I reacted to this with a few tweets that received a decent reaction...




Yes we are down and yes we will be watching a much lower level of football next year but with the right amount of support and belief we can bounce back. This isn't the end of the glory years altogether. We will be back.

Scunthorpe Till I Die.

It's not over until the fat lady sings...

So here we are with 4 games left still occupying that final relegation spot with Oldham being the team above us (albeit only on goal difference). In the past few weeks there has been many times where I've almost given up and accepted our inevitable relegation. I know many Iron fans who are in a similar frame of mind but is this sending the right message to the players? If we've given up will they start to lose the final string of hope and fight they have left in them? We cannot let this happen. We have to throw every bit of passion we have inside of us into supporting the team in these 4 cup finals. If we do that and still go down then we go down knowing we did our bit.

We play an in form Walsall side on Saturday who have not lost a game since the end of January. Quite a scary stat in fairness. They have play-off ambitions and a win could catapult them into the final play-off spot. But with what's at stake for both clubs you'd be silly to go with form alone and predict an easy Walsall victory.
Leyton Orient came to Glanford Park at the end of March as one of the most in form teams in the league and we managed to turn them over, so why not Walsall?
Iron fans should also not forget the result in the reverse fixture at the Bescot - 4-1 to Scunny. AND WITH ONLY 10 MEN!

After the Saddlers we head to struggling Bury on Tuesday for a relegation 6 pointer. Off the field issues for the Shakers resulted in the club announcing yesterday that they need to find 1 million pounds in the coming days or the club will cease to exist. A sad state of affairs and I'm sure many Iron fans will join me in wishing them the best of luck.
With regards to this match if you look at our final 4 fixtures it is the only one you would say the Iron are easily favorites to win so we MUST go there and get the job done. Oldham head to Bury on Saturday and with them being in the same dire situation as us (although sitting out of the relegation zone would say they are a tad better off) they will be desperate to take 3 points away from Gigg Lane.

Preston did us a favour on Tuesday and made sure Oldham did not take anything from 1 of the 2 games in hand they had. They now have one game in hand but this is a difficult trip to Shrewsbury a week on Tuesday.

I will be stood behind the goal on Saturday praying we can perform miracles and pull away from Oldham. Stranger things have happened...

Keep the faith...

Believe...

Forever Iron!

The rise of The Iron

Since joining the Football League in 1950, Scunthorpe United F.C has built itself up from the
basement tier, to its standing today in the Football League Championship. With Glanford Park as its
stomping grounds, the Iron has built up a reputation over the last few years for producing promising
young strikers. 3 most recent rising stars were Gary Hooper who now plays for Scottish Premier
League Celtics, Billy Sharp who is with Nottingham Forest and Martin Paterson for Burnley. All 3
were sold off for seven figure sums and are perhaps the reason why the Iron remains one of only
three in the top four divisions who are debt free. A couple more players like these lads and they
could be making a fortune.

A rather measly start to the 2012-2013 season was experienced, with the Iron playing rather poorly.
In the first round of the League Cup a draw of 5-5 with Derby led to a penalty
shootout, with a win of 7-6. The sacking of manager Alan Knill in October and the subsequent
hiring of Brian Laws and assistant manager Russ Wilcox saw the Iron defeat Walsall and Coventry in
League.

Any Iron fan knows that 2008-2009 was their best season by far, as they reached Wembley twice
and qualified for the Football League Trophy final. They were defeated by Luton Town in extra time
but went on to play in the League One play-offs and beat Millwall in the final, promoting them back
to the Championship. In the 2009-2010 season the Iron retained their second tier status, something no
other Scunthorpe FC team had managed to do since 1963.

The rise of the Iron has also seen an increased interest from UK football enthusiasts. Cutting edge
technology has also assisted in widening the audience and the iPad allows for fans to enjoy watching
the match live at a stadium or streaming on their device whilst participating in sports betting online.
The iPad also lets you simultaneously look up facts, figures and past results of the team. Online
gaming sites like iPadcasino.co.nz are specifically geared for mobile players to participate in casino
games on the move; all whilst enjoying the match or getting information about the Irons fixtures.

5 Games left to scrap for our lives

 
So we have a measly 5 games remaining to retain our League 1 status for at least one more season. With Wharton stepping down as Chairman at the end of the season and no replacement in sight it's hard to imagine next season would fair any better than this one has should we stay up (or go down for that matter).

There are 2 teams within reach for the Iron - Colchester United & Oldham Athletic. We currently occupy the final relegation spot with Oldham above us on goal difference however they do have 2 games in hand on us too.. Colchester are 3 points above us having played the same amount of games as us too. Taking a brief look at Oldham's remaining fixtures and there are some very winnable fixtures there for the lactics and with 2 games in hand I can only see them pulling away from us. The only positive is they have a lot of fixtures to cram into these final weeks and fatigue may result in slipping vital points which could open a window for us to sneak out at their peril. In my opinion though this will not happen and we need to keep our eye on Colchester United's results. They have a tough run in like ourselves and are on as equally a bad run of form as us too. With a goal difference of -20 we are only lagging 3 goals behind that and you just never know it could all come down to that all important goal difference.

Anyway a look back at Easter Monday's game away at Bournemouth. To be fair any Iron fan who thought we could get anything out of this game has now been safely placed in the nearest mental asylum. However the mentalists weren't actually that far off! We lost the game 1-0. A bit of luck and we could have grabbed a point from a team seemingly destined for Championship football next season.

This Saturday we head to Preston North End who are hardly blowing away the League like some of their fans would have envisioned before the season. In fact they have lost 2 and drawn 2 of their last 4 games, a run of form actually worse than the Iron's. Well, kind of anyway..
We have been fairly decent away from home at PNE in previous years so what's to say we can't go there and snatch the 3 points? Unlikely however miracles do happen!!

If you are heading to Deepdale on Saturday travel safe and sing your hearts out Don't jeer just get behind the boys. LET'S AV'IT!

Thoughts as we head into the final 8 games of the season

I have no words.

#League2

Just like a bus, 2 home wins come at once

Niall celebrates his late winner

So this time last week I was still recovering from the anger I accumulated from witnessing the Referee give the most stupid penalty I have ever seen against Crewe.
Amazingly we were 6 points worse off back then, but 2 wins at Glanford park last Tuesday and the Saturday just gone mean the Iron now sit out of the relegation zone with another huge fixture tonight (once again at Glanford Park) against Carlisle United.

So skipping back to the Crewe game and although we were absolutely robbed of at least a point there was plenty of positives to take from the game. Crewe are a good outfit at home and it's a hard place to go and take points so for us to go there and look relatively comfortable for the whole game was promising, so despite the loss you'd hope the run of 4 games unbeaten before this game would mean the Iron players heads would still be held high heading into a relegation 6 pointer with Portsmouth.
LUCKILY, they were! We took the lead deservedly last Tuesday before being pegged back from yet another Freekick screamer. So we went into halftime despite our dominance level. The second half was similar to the first in the sense that there was no real class about either side, but saying that the Iron were still more than worthy of winning the game. So when the clock ticked ever closer to the full time whistle you start to moan knowing that this would be yet more deserved points thrown away. Step forward Akpo Sodje! Sodj scored a great header in the 85th minute to make sure we got our elusive first win at home in months!

So Saturday came and this time we took on Crawley Town, once again at Glanford Park. Could the buzz from Tuesday's win at home give us the confidence to grab another MASSIVE 3 points? Yes, yes it could! The first half ended 0-0 and that was fair so to say. Then Crawley came out of the blocks running in the second half and deservedly took the lead through ex-Iron Legend Matt Sparrow. Luckily we reacted to going behind better than I have seen in a long time at home and we equalised through a Jimmy Ryan tap in following a Michael Collins fierce strike. Soon after the Iron were ahead and this time it was credit to Niall Canavan who rose the highest to nod in from a Mark Duffy corner. 2-1 to the Iron at full time.

This was the first time Scunthorpe United had recorded successive home victories in the League since back in 2010. Relief all around and optimism heading into Tuesday the 12th February's (home game again!) with Carlisle United. Which is tonight!

Predicted line up for tonights game:

                  Slocombe,
Newey, Canavan, Reid, Kennedy,
Duffy, Ryan, Collins, Barcham,
              Hawley, Sodje.

Predicted attendance, final score and goal scorers:

Scunthorpe United 3-1 Carlisle United. Duffy, Collins & Sodje. Att.2896

If you are going to the game make sure you sing your hearts out for the lads. Surely it's not possible to win three on the bounce???

Iron!!

Unbeaten run stretched to 4 games

The Iron celebrate Hawley's goal against Carlisle

So, Scunthorpe United have completed their first month of the Calendar year unbeaten. An improvement no doubt on what we have had to endure earlier on in the season, but we have only won 1 of the 4 games we have played.
Against Oldham we threw away a 2 goal lead which looking at the table now was massive. We really would have thrown Oldham into the deep stuff if we had of held on for those 3 points especially considering we still have a game in hand on them. Against Shrewsbury we failed to capitalise on our dominance in the game and then VERY nearly lost it at the death had it not been for an alert Sam Slocombe. Whilst I've mentioned super Sam I wanted to say he has been fantastic since Mildenhall left the club and credit to the guy for stepping up to the plate and erasing his poor confidence before Steve was brought in.

So we went to Carlisle on Saturday and faced a team who were on a fairly decent run of form at home so before the game I would have settled for a point. However after hearing the reports which suggest we really should have left with all 3 I can't help but be a little disappointed, especially as the goal Carlisle did score was a freak free-kick that no-one on the pitch would have expected to go in. It was hit perfectly and you cannot take anything away from the lad that scored the goal as it was worthy of taking at least a point from the game, but maybe the Iron should have already secured the 3 points before this incident? Maybe maybe maybe, story of the Iron's last 4 or 5 years straight. Maybe if we had turned even half of those draws last season there wouldn't have been the pressure there was on Knill at the beginning of the season and he would probably still be the man in charge.

Anyway looking forward to this Saturday as we head to Crewe. Crewe's last League victory came against Carlisle on New Year's day. Worryingly it is Crewe's home form which leaves them in mid-table solidarity as they are pretty poor away from Gresty Road (still managed to beat the Iron at Glanford Park back in August though!). The one thing I can say is in recent weeks we are becoming increasingly hard to beat which can only be a massive plus as we come into the closing months of another frustrating season. I am heading to the game via a train from Leeds and even with it being Monday right now I am incredibly excited for the game already. Although it is a friend's birthday night out in Sheffield at the night time so if we end up winning I'll spend the night getting incredibly high on life proclaiming 'I am celebrating an Iron win and your birthday William!', whereas an Iron loss would result in me morbidly 'Drinking away my sorrows, but still celebrating your birthday William!'.

Right, now onto transfer news... Nothing. Well except the Eddie Nolan saga which will probably be over either today or tomorrow. I personally want to see Eddie given a contract till the end of the season as our depth at the back is dangerously low. An injury to Newey and Kennedy at the same time would leave us royally buggered. Eddie can play at LB, RB and even in a defensive midfield position which means his flexibility could prove pivotal in these desperate few months.
Apart from Eddie I really cannot see us signing anyone else which is really disappointing, but understandable. No Beast or Mirfin will be brought in to save our season like this time last year so it is down to the boys we already have. Can they do it? YES! If our players play like they have in the past Month we will stay up I have no doubt in that. We just can't have anymore of our important players underperforming (not mentioning names "BARCHAM!").

Get down to Crewe on Saturday and cheer on the boys. Up the Iron!!

Postponed Pompey Game Gives Iron Breathing Space

With Glanford Park frozen over, Scunthorpe’s weekend match against Portsmouth was postponed a day before kick off in an act of generosity never usually afforded to the Iron by match officials.

While Pompey fans will no doubt have been delighted they didn't have to travel the 500-mile round trip in deep snow, there must also be relief from Iron supporters that we didn't have to play last Saturday. 

Last weekend witnessed a great victory over Colchester but covered up inconsistencies in the team; it was our first victory in five games and second since 10 November when we outplayed Coventry.

Since that clash at the Ricoh, Brian Laws has not exactly inspired much form in the boys and, although we are now at least off the bottom of the table, there is still much work to be done this winter if we are to defy fans placing a bet on football, and stay in League One.

Some fans will argue that our 2-1 win over Colchester could spur us on to better things and, with Pompey struggling themselves, this was the perfect opportunity to nick three more points in the scrap for survival. 

However, thinking for the long term, this postponement may do wonders for our season, for a good week’s rest after the busy festive period is just what Laws’ boys need right now.

We saw in that goalless draw at Glanford Park against Shrewsbury that the Christmas calendar was getting the better of us and we had to defend well against Colchester to earn that win last weekend.

This postponement gives the players chance to rest, recuperate, and think about the upcoming spring. Ahead is a far more relaxed schedule and, after a week off, Laws’ men should travel to Carlisle with great confidence they can lift us out of this rut, regardless of what betting news pundits may think of our chances.

Biggest win of the season so far

Jimmy Ryan fires in the Iron's first

I am really busy at work this week hence the late post on last Saturday's game but as the saying goes - "Better late than never!".
So last Saturday provided us with arguably the biggest game of the season so far against Colchester United. Colchester sat one place and one point above the Iron, but more importantly that one place was OUT of the relegation zone. I sat there thinking to myself in the hours leading up to kick off that at 5 O'clock Saturday evening we could for the first time since late September find ourselves out of the relegation zone. This was massive. What that one place could do to the Iron player's mentalities was priceless.

We went into the game on the back of 2 draws with Oldham and Shrewsbury respectively. You could argue that these were 2 games that the Iron should have won comfortably based on the way the matches went, but it was not to be and at least we got out of the games without a loss, it was a start.
I couldn't afford to go to the game with Christmas just gone so I resigned myself to the sofa and watched Gillette soccer Saturday and tuned into the live twitter updates.
Our first goal came not long before the break when the Home side looked more likely to score, and blimey how important it was to get that first goal. The goal came in the shape of a Jimmy Ryan scorcher! His first goal of the season will hopefully set him alight and I almost expect him to bag again in the coming weeks!
So half time came with the Iron sitting nicely on a 1-0 lead but all Iron fans knew another goal was needed before we started to get excited. Saying that not many of us would have expected that second goal to come so quickly as almost straight from the kick off in the 2nd half a headed flick from new signing Akpo Sodje sent Hawley through on goal who finished crisply. 2-0 Let's go f'fing mental! Wait, this is Scunthorpe United and it's only 2 weeks since we last threw away a 2 goal lead so let's calm down...
Scunthorpe fans detest when we get ourselves a good lead and then sit on it so it was encouraging to see us going close on 2 further occasions via a Callum Kennedy free kick which hit the post and another Karl Hawley shot which also hit the post. So for once we don't sit on a lead and guess what happens? Yep against the run of play Colchester pull one back through ex-Iron loanee Freddy Sears, and with 30 minutes of normal time remaining suddenly an all so familiar sight looked inevitable.
To my surprise we held on for a priceless 2-1 victory despite an onslaught of Colchester pressure to find that equaliser.

So we are now out of the relegation zone! This feels amazing! Below is the table to savour because only God knows how long we will remain out of that dredded drop zone:



This ties me into a look at this weekend's game against Portsmouth who even before the kick off are there for the taking.
Pompey's off field problems have been highlighted all the way through the current campaign but they seem to be at the worst possible state at this moment in time. It hurts me to say this because the fans of that club really are suffering but there really is no better time to play them. They have about 6 or 7 players in there squad who are actually first team players, the rest of the team on Saturday will be made up of youth players. If we can't beat a team in this mess then we don't deserve to stay up!
A further 3 points and a loss for the teams around us would be priceless, but more than anything we need to keep the momentum going the way it is at the moment.

Scunthorpe United have sent this message to fans in light of the poor weather: "United are seeking volunteers to help clear the Glanford Park pitch ahead of Saturday's home clash with Portsmouth."
"There are presently pitch covers beneath the snow, protecting the playing surface, but the club are asking supporters to come to the stadium at 9.00am on Friday morning to help clear all the snowfall ahead of the important League One match."

If you have some spare time on Friday morning I urge you to get down to Glanford park and help to try and get this game on! In return SUFC are awarding fans that do help with a free ticket for the game.

As always UP THE IRON!!

Scunthorpe United update & Marathon run

So there has been plenty of goings on at Scunthorpe United in the past week or so. There had been plenty of talk of a certain boxing promoter known by the name of Dennis Hobson was trying to get onto the board to try and help Brian Laws with his signings in January. On Tuesday it was confirmed on the Official site that Dennis had been accepted onto the board. Little did Iron fans know how instantanious Mr Hobson's impact would be as it emerged that the signing of Akpo Sodje (a family friend of Mr Hobson) had been down to some sweet talking from wheeler dealer Lawsy and Dennis. It's believable that Akpo had offers from teams in a better current situation than the Iron so you have to admit that Mr Hobson had a massive impact on the signing of the striker who scored 7 goals in 17 games for Preston North End earlier on in the season.
I expect there to be at least 1 more player signing before the weekends away trip to Colchester but Iron fans have no idea who this player will turn out to be now it seems the certain signing of Iron Legend Matt Sparrow appears to have fallen through as it emerges he may have signed for League 1 rivals Crawley Town. It would have been nice to welcome Matt back but such is life and I am sure Laws will have had a plan B for this so we shall see what happens in the next few days.
Another name that has been mentioned is Craig Westcarr who had his contract terminated at Chesterfield recently. When we played there last year he looked very dangerous and with rumours still flying around of Barcham's departure this would surely be a great replacement.

In other news anyone who reads this blog will know I lost my Grandad to Alzheimers last year and I have decided that as part of my New Years resolution I would like to raise some money for the Alzheimers Society, and what better way to raise money than by doing a half marathon! I have applied for the Great North Run and remain hopeful that I will be accepted so I can run this marathon for the man I idolised, and still do. For me personally there is no other charity at this moment in time I could put ahead of the Alzheimers society. I run in memory of my Grandad and in the hope that the money I raise can go a long way to helping other family's who have been affected by this terrible disease.
Once I have a definite Marathon that I will be running in I will make a brief post on here and ask anyone who has a few spare penny's would set some aside for the Alzheimer's society via my personal charity page.