Port Vale v Scunthorpe United

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Football League One

Port Vale :
Goodlad, Abbey, Pilkington, Fortune, Talbot (sent off 14), Cummins, Dinning (Husbands 65), Togwell, Smith (James 65), Lowndes, Constantine
Subs not used:
Brain, McGregor, Doherty

Scunthorpe United :
Musselwhite, Stanton, Crosby, Foster, Rose, Taylor, Hinds, Baraclough, Sparrow, Torpey, Keogh (Ehui 86)
Subs not used:
Goodwin, Byrne, Williams, Evans

SULSESC REPORT

by Chris Pettitt at Vale Park

WHO’D have thought it? Two away games on the bounce and two wins. Good job we were sitting down or we would have fallen down. You could feel the earth shake with the shock of it all.

On a freezing cold night and on what could only be described as a bobbly pitch, United had trouble in the opening minutes trying to string two passes together.

The writing looked like it was on the wall when, after a poor clearance, Dinning let fly from 20 yards, only to see his strike come back off the post.

With United’s first decent attack, Sparrow cut in from the left and, from just outside the box, hit a magnificent shot that Goodlad had no chance of stopping.

A few minutes later, Hinds and Talbot both appeared to go in for a 50-50 ball with studs up, Hinds coming off worse in what looked like a nasty challenge. The ref sent off Talbot and then Lawsy for running onto the playing surface to show his displeasure, this after only 13 minutes.

So with Vale down to 10 men, it was fairly obvious we were going to do something stupid. After cries of ‘don’t do anything stupid’, Sparrow gave away a silly free kick on the right and a static Iron defence watched helplessly as Cummins nodded home from the far post unchallenged.

It took a few minutes before Scunny settled again and started to get on top with Cleveland and Stanton working well down the right. It was not until just before half-time that Scunny had a good chance to go in front, Goodlad punching Torpey’s header onto the bar, Vale clearing only as far as Stanton who went on a surging run and shot, which hit the upright, the resulting rebound falling to Bara who lashed a 20 yard shot just over.

The second-half proved to be just as entertaining. With 15 minutes of the half gone, a cross from the left was only half cleared to Cleveland who, from 20 yards, hit a volley that no ‘keeper would have got to.

Vale made a couple of substitutions and, with three up front, started to cause our creaky defence a few problems.

Constantine, who was a constant thorn, clipped the top of the bar before a couple of penalty shouts for handball were turned down.

In the end, United hung on for the three points and hit the dizzy heights of 12th.