Scunthorpe United v Leicester

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Football League Championship

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Byrne, Crosby, Butler, Youga, Forte (May 74), Goodwin, Sparrow, Hurst, Hayes, Paterson
Subs not used:
Lillis, Iriekpen, Taylor, Cork

Leicester :
Fulop, Kisnorbo, N'Gotty, McAuley, Stearman, Chambers, Clemence, Newton (Wesolowski 85), Sheehan, Fryatt (Campbell 81), Hume (sent off 61)
Subs not used:
Henderson, Porter, Kenton

SULSESC REPORT

by Neil Wright at Glanford Park

IF you will picture the scene, it’s a Saturday night in September, Tracy and I are sitting watching TV, enjoying a good Merlot with diaries in hand (for those of you who know Tracy, you will be well aware that she works all kinds of silly shifts so every now and then we need to collate an available Saturday where we might be able to do all those usual things that people do of a weekend).

The conversation eventually got around to United and what games I’d be doing in the next couple of months…

NEIL: I’m going up to Scunny and staying over for the Leicester game on the 20th of October. It’s live on Sky and kick off isn’t till 5.20 pm so I’ll be leaving mid-morning if that helps.

TRACY: So you are going all the way up to Scunthorpe to watch a game that is live on Sky TV?

NEIL: Yes.

TRACY: Why don’t you just go down the pub and watch it there?

NEIL: Cos I’m driving up to Scunny to watch the game and then staying at The Clamart and having a bit of a jolly in The Lawyer with a few of the lads.

TRACY: Yeah, but I don’t understand why you are driving up to Scunthorpe when the game is on TV and you could just go around the corner to The Duckwood and just watch it in there. Isn’t that easier, cheaper and less hassle?

NEIL: No.

TRACY: Why?

The conversation continued for about another 20 minutes! I’m afraid I never did mange to make her understand.

So to the day of the game. Mr. Sumner arrived at my house at about

11.25 and we set off to Harlow to collect the chairman and his Leicester pal, a journey of no more than 15 minutes. Some 10 minutes after leaving Harold Hill, we were sitting stationary on the M11 going nowhere! A seven-car pile up just minutes before our arrival and only half a mile from the Harlow slip road resulted in the traffic going nowhere.

It was at this point, dear readers, that Tracy’s words echoed around inside my head.

Sixty minutes later and with the accident cleared, it was on to Harlow and the collection of our remaining two passengers. We arrived in Scunthorpe only an hour later than we had planned but there is something quite strange about standing in the Lawyer at 4 pm on a Saturday afternoon when you are normally down at the ground. Mmm, felt a bit weird!

Having chatted to fellow SULSESC members and the reasonable number of Leicester fans that had decamped off the 3 o’clock train, we left for the ground at about 4.30 pm and were probably back in the Lawyer for about 7.30 pm ready to watch the Rugby World Cup Final.

A very pleasant evening was spent watching the Rugby and then enjoying a curry before sitting up till the early hours in the hotel bar speculating with a few Leicester fans as to whether we are good enough to stay in this division and that Megson really isn’t the man to take them into the Premier League. No sooner had I gone to bed than my alarm was going off and it was an early start back to London.

Oh yes, what of the game you may ask – let’s just say we didn’t do ourselves any favours in front of the Sky TV cameras. There was lots of huff and puff and an excessive number of high balls into the penalty area, collected time and again by probably the tallest ‘keeper in the division. Leicester were poor, we weren’t much better and it all ended in a 0-0 bore draw. Our ‘strikers’ (and I use that word in the loosest of terms) seem intent on wanting to walk the ball into the goal.

Which manager was it who used to encourage his players to shoot at every opportunity. I forget at the time of writing, please forgive my ignorance.

I will say, though, there is a bloke down the motorway at Bramall Lane in Sheffield who seems to be spending his time keeping the bench warm for 180 minutes every week. His name, by the way, is Billy Sharp and I have it on good authority that he’s not a bad goal scorer.