The Iron came into their game with Morecambe with 10 points from their previous 4 games and only denied a 100% record by a 97th minute equaliser at Wycombe. Which was hand ball I must add. Morecambe came into the game with 7 points out of a possible 12. Not bad for a club with one of the smallest budgets in the league and supposed relegation candidates.
Morecambe started the game with a ferocious intensity, bombarding the Scunthorpe penalty area and earning plenty of corners, 5 within the first 4 minutes. Their only real chance of note from their pressure came on 8 minutes when the Iron only cleared a Andy Fleming corner to the edge of the area and Chris McCready shot just wide.
Scunny began to wrestle momentum from the Shrimps and after half chances for Sean McAllister and David Mirfin a passing move between Terry Hawkridge, Sam Winnall and Christian Ribeiro lead to Ribeiro laying the ball across the face of goal leaving Deon Burton with a tap in. 1-0 to the Iron after 17 minutes.
Further half chances fell the Iron’s way with Barry Roche tipping a Marcus Williams effort over the bar and just a few seconds after a Eddie Nolan cross was failed to be directed goalwards by Dave Syers. On 33 minutes the Iron doubled their lead. Tight knit passing between a number of Iron players lead to Deon Burton scoring a 25 yard volley on his weaker left foot. It was Burton’s 4th goal of the season and his 3rd in 2 games.
The second half kicked off with Scunthorpe very much in the ascendancy. Terry Hawkridge played in Syers but with the goal at his mercy, albeit from an angle, Syers chose to cross the ball to no-one when a shot on goal would have been the best option. Morecambe drifted out the game after their good start to the game, resorting to playing a long ball game which couldn’t break down the Iron’s defence. One of their best chances came from Barry Roche’s long punt forward which fell to Padraig Amond whose strike whistled just past Sam Slocombe’s post.
The Iron had further chances to bury the game. Top scorer Sam Winnall firstly played Syers in clean through, but whilst he was trying to shoot/take the ball round Barry Roche the keeper just about managed to get his body in the way of the ball taking it out for a corner and a few minutes later Sean McAllister had a shot which Roche turned round the post, rather too spectacularly for my liking. In the last few minutes Burton almost claimed his hat-trick, I can’t talk about this chance as I was relieving myself in Glanford Park’s newly decorated toilets, but the Iron’s website tells me that Burton had a shot that beat Roche but was cleared off the line by Robbie Threlfall. However it wasn’t to be and the Iron came away only winners by 2 goals in a game in which they deserved to win by 4/5. 3 points can’t be sniffed at though. Scunthorpe rise to 3rd in the table ahead of their trip to Bury on Boxing Day whereas Morecambe stay 9th ahead of their game at home to Fleetwood.
Line ups
Scunthorpe United: Slocombe, Ribeiro, Mirfin, Canavan, Nolan, Hawkridge (Adelakun 61), McAllister (Boyce, 85), Syers, Williams, Burton, Winnall (Godden, 76).
Morecambe: Roche, Wright, McCready (Ellison, 54), Hughes, Threlfall, Parrish, Fleming (Kenyon, 79), Redshaw, Drummond, Sampson, Amond (Mwajile, 68).
Referee: David Webb
Attendance: 3510 (73 away)
Under The Floodlights 