The man from Cameroon,he scores goals.....

Let us start with some words from the dictionary,

Enigma
           noun
                 a person of puzzling or contradictory charachter

Let me give you a minute to work out who that most describes from the history of Scunthorpe United.....

August 1999

Alex Calvo Garcia's famous Wembley goal had sealed the Iron a play off final win against Leyton Orient a few months earlier.Scunthorpe United are about to play in the Second Division for the first time in a while. The Iron are rocked with the news that strike partners John Eyre and Jamie Forrester are leaving for pastures new. The 40 goal strike pairing's decisions to leave, on bosman free transfers, sees the team lacking a cutting edge. Lee Hodges is the only real summer transfer activity, but he is not going to fill a massive void up front. The season starts at the impressive, newly opened, JJB Stadium with a game against big spending Wigan Athletic, the favourites for the title. The team sheet comes out with a strike pairing of John Gayle and Wayne Graves. Hardly a duo to strike fear into defenders, Gayle was a fans favourite but was never a prolific goal scorer and Graves played as an attacking midfielder more than anything. They both struggle to make an impact going forward. The lack of goals is more than evident in the first three games, defeats to Wigan, Wycombe and Notts County, without scoring a goal shows that the season is going to be a long one.

Former England under 21 striker Richie Humphries comes in on loan from Sheffield Wednesday but finds goals hard to come by in his first couple of games. Then Bournemouth came to town on August 28th. Humphries scored twice and an unknown Cameroonian striker comes off the bench and scores a bullet header to cap a fantastic team performance. The striker boasts an impressive club history. Athletico Madrid, Torino and Nancy amongst his former employers, should have showed his pedigree, but after scoring only 3 goals in 24 games in the previous season at Bristol Rovers he found himself without a club, until Iron manager Brian Laws gave him a chance to prove his worth.



Celebrating with Laws at Burnley



This man was Guy Ipoua. After his debut goal against Bournemouth he started the away game at Cardiff, scoring a fantastic indiviual goal before the team conceded a late goal for a 1-1 draw. Tow goals in two appearances prompted Laws to offer the front man a two year contract, which the player was more than happy to sign. The Cameroonian was a breath of fresh air in a struggling front line and found himself playing with a number of partners up top. Humphries and Steve Guinan came and went, but the arrival of Clint Marcelle, on loan from Barnsley, brought the best out of him. It can't be very often that the Iron have had a Cameroonian and a Trinidadian International as a strike pairing ?

The highlight of Ipoua's season has to be the Iron's first ever appearance on SKY. A league trip to Burnley looked on paper to be a home win, with the Clarets being unbeaten all season, but Ipoua and co had other ideas. A forwards masterclass ensued with the striker scoring a cheeky scooped goal for the winner before rushing to the halfway line to celebrate with manager Laws, the man who had resurected his career in England.

Steve Torpey

Ipoua became a regular name on the score sheet, but sadly the last of his goals came on January 22nd, the winner against Notts County at home, when his goals began to dry up something needed to be done, it wasn't long before other options were brought in. Steve Torpey became the clubs record signing, a £200,000 fee needed to bring him to Glanford Park from Bristol City. Brian Quailey,a young striker from West Brom saw the Iron take up the rest of his Albion contract. Ipoua found himself out of the team as the two new men were favoured by Laws. Torpey became the big striker the Iron needed and roughed up many a centre back, whilst Quailey became the scorer of some crucial goals, a move which saw him playing World Cup qualifiers, even though it was for the minnows St Kitts and Nevis !
After such a good start to the season Ipoua must have been disapointed to be out of the team.

The team continued to prove they weren't good enough for the level they were at, and were relegated back to the basement division.

A summer ankle operation saw him out until late September.

Replacing the suspended Torpey, Ipoua found himself staight back in the scoring charts with two goals against Torquay, follwed by goals against Halifax, Darlington and Shrewsbury, but the best was still to come.

The record books had to be ripped up as the unpredictable striker scored for fun during November. I personally will never forget his hat-trick to beat Hartlepool 3-1 in the first round of the FA Cup, but only seven days later he went one better with four goals in a 6-0 thrashing of Mansfield. Club goalscoring legend Barrie Thomas was in the crowd that day and must have been proud to see Ipoua put on a master class. Becoming the first player to score four goals in a game at Glanford Park as well as back to back hat-tricks left the front man as a hero to many on the terrace. Seven goals in two games will definately take some beating i think !

Celebrating a goal with Calvo

Despite scoring a few more goals the man from Cameroon found himself on the transfer list and the bench, after rejecting a new contract. Ipoua was a firm favourite with the fans but wanted more. A desire to play international football saw him leave for a measly £25,000, a low fee but better than nothing as he could have left for free only a few months later. His move to Gillingham didn't really work out as he struggled to get past Marlon King and Iffy Onoura and again found himself on the bench. After two years at Gillingham he left  the club. Spells at Livingston, Doncaster and Hereford, as well as loan deals at Lincoln and Mansfield, didn't work out quite as well as his time with the Iron and he returned to his native Cameroon to play for hometown club Oryx Douala, before falling off the footballing map.

The one thing i'll always remeber about Ipoua was that whilst he was a natural goal scorer he caused the fans, and fellow players, so much frustation. It's good that opponents never quite knew what he was going to do with the ball at his feet, but you always got the feeling his team mates didn't either. It could almost be said he probably didn't know himself until he had done it. His nearly two season stay with us was by no means a golden era, that was to come a few years later, but he deffinately left the fans with a few golden memories, the odd wonder goal and a taste for the unpredictable.

Guy Ipoua is, without doubt one of my Iron Legends !