Scunthorpe United v Chester

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Football League Two

Scunthorpe United :
Musselwhite, Stanton, Crosby, Butler, Ridley, Taylor, Kell, Baraclough, Sparrow (Brighton 45), Hayes, Keogh (Featherstone 78)
Subs not used:
Evans, Jackson, Byrne

Chester :
Brown, Edmondson, Bolland, Collins, Hessey, Carden (Harris 70), Drummond, Ellison, Davies, Rapley (Stamp 89), Belle (sent off 81)
Subs not used:
MacKenzie, Navarro, Hope

SULSESC REPORT

by Andy Skeels at Glanford Park

TOP v bottom. A home banker in anyone's book. Or an away banker for anyone who has followed Scunthorpe United regularly for any length of time...

And we've all been following the Iron long enough to know by now that this was a certain win for Chester.

The surprise was just how badly we managed to play in the first–half after which, with no exaggeration, we could quite easily have been three or four goals down.

Considering we were unbeaten in the opening seven fixtures, and had played well in virtually all of them, the Iron's performance in the opening 45 minutes was breathtakingly bad.

After a slow start to the game, Chester - who had only recorded their first win of the season the previous Saturday thanks to a 90th minute winner against Macclesfield - quickly began to realise that the top–of–the–table side they'd been expecting to play hadn't turned up.

Instead, Scunthorpe had metamorphosed into a local Sunday Pub League team who couldn't even string two passes together. The visitors, under new manager Ian Rush, capitalised and were two up with little more than half an hour on the clock.

There's no doubt it could have been even worse for the Iron, as Musselwhite had to pull off a couple of excellent saves to keep us in the match.

Things could only improve in the second–half and that they did, but not by enough to repair the damage already inflicted. Chester were only inches away from adding a third when they hit the bar and it wasn't until Andy Butler scrambled the ball home with less than 15 minutes to go that United finally began to come to life.

It's fair to say we could have rescued a point from the game - and perhaps even have undeservedly won it - as Chester, reduced to 10 men by Belle's contentious dismissal late on, found themselves penned back into their own area in the closing stages.

Kell blasted over when it looked easier to score, Butler could only direct a free header straight at Chester 'keeper Brown and a stream of United corners all came to nought as the visitors held out.

Had we played like we did in the last 15 minutes for the full 90, the outcome would surely have been very different...but we didn't and Chester deserved their win. Fans of other clubs around the Fourth Division might have been taken aback when they heard the result from Glanford Park, but I don't think any of us were surprised!