Bobby comes good at last....



Signing of the Summer ?



So the trip to Accrington brought back memories of the good old days in League Two. A warm beer, an open terrace that looks decidedly dodgy to stand on and the sight of as many flags as fans in the home end makes you remember how good we've had it in the last few years. The fact that we could have been two, or maybe three goals down in the first ten minutes, was a little worrying to say the least. You could give the defence the benefit of the doubt though to a small degree. I struggled to watch the action from the terrace with the blazing sun in your eyes i'm sure the back four were having a few problems. Young Accrington striker Kurtis Guthrie gave Nelson and Reid a good game in the early going, bustling through the defence at ease and bringing a couple of good saves from Josh Lillis. The Iron got more and more into the game, only troubled by a hard tackle on former Accrington favourite Jimmy Ryan, that would see him miss the next couple of games with a dead leg. Late goals from a Chris Dagnall penalty and a curling Andy Barcham shot from the edge of the box put the Iron through to a mouth watering home tie with the once mighty Newcastle United at Glanford Park. The same team that only a couple of years ago were humbled by "Little Old Scunthorpe" will probably give the fixture a bit more of a go this time for fear of the upset happening again.

The following home game against Preston brought back terrible memories form last season. The night that Ian Baraclough lost his job, after a 3-0 defeat by then fellow strugglers PNE was possibly the lowest pint in my time as a fan. This time a few of the players looked like they had a point to prove. A slow start to the game looked like our undoing again. An early strike from Ian Hume, the man who on that fateful night nicked my stool at pitchside for a few minutes, scored from outside the area, allowed to have a couple of touches before smashing past Josh Lillis. Preston manager Phil Brown did a dance of joy on in the dugout after the goal, much like he did last time at Glanford Park. A late goal, smashed home by that man again, Andy Barcham sent the perma tanned former Hull manager in to a fit of rage on the touchline. Holding his post match team talk on the pitch will probably have embarrased his players into pulling there socks up in the future. One player missing from that game was Jordan Robertson, afterwards it became clear he had broken his ankle after falling heavily after a Sam Togwell challenge in training. You've got to think he's a bit unlucky, only playing a few games before missing out for what will probably be a good few months, hopefully he'll be raring to go on his return to action !

Jordan Robertson
Unlucky ?

Following on from a good point gained against a decent looking Preston side was the visit of Oldham. The first game i've watched from the stands for a while was a terrrible footballing spectacle. Another slow start was our downfall yet again. Oldham looked to exploit our full backs at every opportunity. Cross after cross was whipped in to put pressure on the back four. A fantastic curling strike from David Mellor put us 1-0 down. Chris Dagnall levelled the scores, with a solo effort that brought back memories of a wonderful Paul Hayes goal scored in a Humber derby a few years back. The fans got behind the team well from there but a late free header condemed us to defeat. It feels strange watching from the stands after only seeing games from the touchline. You might not believe me but you really don't hear much from the stands when at the side of the pitch. The only time you really hear anything is after goals are scored. It was good to be amongst the fans and hear the cheers, the boos, the chanting. The fans got behind the team after the equaliser but when the game was going against us the fans got on the backs of some of the players. I'm a believer that if you pay your money, your entitled to your opinion, so i'll not say they're not right to voice your opinions. It just goes to prove though, if the game is going right the fans are more likely to be on your side, but as soon as your start to struggle their on your case, sometimes i think it would be better if they were behind you whatever was happening.

The one thing we seemed to be missing was the creativity of Jimmy Ryan. So far this season he's looked a very good signing. A lot of rumours seem to say that we are waiting to see how much Ryan's tribunal fee will be before we sign anyone else, this could be part of the reason why numerous trialists played for us in pre season but none of them were signed, or could that be a conspiracy theory ? Ryan and Barcham look like our best players by far. If only Knill was able to bring in another nine players he wanted we might be running away with things !



Bobby Grant scores in pre season

What did i know. It's only a couple of weeks ago i wrote of Bobby Grant as having no hope of becoming a goal scorer. Despite a couple of pre season penalties he'd never scored for the first team. The odd run out here and there from the bench, as well as starting at the likes of Leicester last season the young scouser has never really set the world alight. Until saturday against Charlton. It was a bit of a surprise to see him in the starting line-up ahead of Garry Thompson but manager Alan Knill seems to have a lot of faith in Bobby to score the goals the Iron so desperately need someone to score. Thompson has done well to play so many minutes so far this season, after last season turned into a washout with a persistent groin injury, but has looked like it's too much too soon at times. The fact that Thompson and Chris Dagnall play a similar kind of game doesn't suit the team either, so Grant's energy and long distance shooting ability is a different approach. The fact that, by all accounts Grant had a stormer against the Addicks. Two goals, including a late late equaliser, repaid some of the managers faith. It's still to be shown whether he can be the answer to the goal scoring puzzle in the long term, one thing for sure is that the fans will have a bit more confidence in him now. The next week sees us play the game against Newcastle at GP followed by the trip to Sheffield Wednesday on saturday. Hopefully we can keep a Rob Jones as quiet as a certain Mr Hayes was at the Valley. Knill seems to be putting his stamp on the team. A good passing side that play fast flowing football is a joy to watch, the slow start to games could just be the thing that holds us back. It's interesting to see that in all the league games so far we've had to come from behind after conceding early on. If we can start games as well as we've been finishing them then good times could be ahead, I've certainly got my fingers crossed for at least one trip to the big smoke to see that famous arch again !

Up the Iron