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It is a big day for Scunthorpe. Today will be their first home game at this level of football since 1964 following their promotion at the end of last season. It wasn't just a promotion either, they ended the season top of League One, six points clear of Bristol City in second place.
This was some achievement given that they lost manager Brian Laws to Sheffield Wednesday during the season and then half of their strike force Andy Keogh moved to Wolves during the January transfer window.
Nigel Adkins, the club physio, took over as manager whilst Jermaine Beckford came in on loan from Leeds to partner the prolific Billy Sharp up front. Sharp scored an amazing thirty league goals whilst Keogh and Beckford chipped in with another fifteen between them.
Sadly for Adkins, none of those players are available to him now. Sharp has gone back to Sheffield United with Scunthorpe making an enormous profit, whilst all attempts to get Beckford back from League One Leeds have so far failed. The other most notable exit from Glanford Park is Steve Torpey, after over seven years the 36-year-old forward has moved down the road to Lincoln City.
dkins has strengthened his squad, particularly with new forwards Jonathan Forte and Paul Hayes, who has returned to the club after two years away at Barnsley. The new players at Scunthorpe are:
Izzy Iriekpen from Swansea
Paul Hayes from Barnsley
Martin Paterson from Stoke
Jonathan Forte from Sheffield United
Alex Mowfor from Nantes
Kelly Youga from Charlton (loan)
Jack Cork from Chelsea (loan)
Scunthorpe got off to a good start last week, coming from behind to earn a point from a 1-1 draw at Charlton. The goal came from defender Izzy Iriekpen who was making his debut for them. They followed that up with a home game against Hartlepool in the Carling Cup, and like us a year ago went out to the North East club, losing 2-1 with Martin Paterson giving them the lead before Hartlepool came back.
It will be close to a full house, and it could be a tough afternoon for the Clarets if we don't get on top of our game early to bring the home side and their crowd back down to earth.
Jonathan Forte is one of Scunthorpe's summer signing, arriving from Sheffield United as Billy Sharp was transferred in the opposite direction. A versatile player he can play either wide or as a central striker.
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He made his debut for Sheffield United in January 2004 whilst 17, coming on as a substitute for Stuart McCall in an FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest. Two months later he got his first start at Crewe in a 1-0 win in the Championship, but throughout his time at Bramall Lane he only started one more league game.
Playing as a forward for a Neil Warnock side, as many others have found to their cost, it wasn't possible to win a regular place in the first team and with opportunities limited he went out on loan three times during the 2005/06 season. There were two different loans to Doncaster which covered all but one month in the first half of the season, and he then spent the second half of the season with Rotherham.
He must have impressed Dave Penney and last summer the then Doncaster boss decided to take him on a season long loan. He appeared in all but five of their league games and also had success in the cup competitions. He netted twice in a 3-3 Carling Cup draw against Derby, a game that Doncaster won on penalties.
But his big day was in the Football League Trophy, as Doncaster went on to win it in the last big final to be played at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. They beat Bristol Rovers 3-2 after extra time, and this after being 2-0 up in the first five minutes. Forte got the game off to a sensational start with a goal in the first minute.
Returning to Sheffield United he again saw his chances as limited under new manager Bryan Robson and jumped at the chance to sign for Scunthorpe. He will be making his home league debut against us this afternoon.
Scunthorpe are waiting on the fitness of defender Izzy Iriekpen who suffered an injury against Hartlepool in the Carling Cup tie. He remains doubtful at this time although there is some good news with full back Marcus Williams having shaken off a knock and reported fit for the game.
Should Iriekpen miss out then Andy Butler will step in. They will definitely be without Ian Morris, he is recovering from a knee injury, and one of Nigel Adkins' summer signings Alex Mowfor isn't training because of an ankle problem.
Other than the change at the back it is expected to be the side that drew 1-1 with Charlton last week. Latest signing Jack Cork, who came in on loan from Chelsea on Thursday, is expected to be on the bench.
Scunthorpe should line up: Joe Murphy, Cliff Byrne, Andy Butler, Andy Crosby, Marcus Williams, Ian Baraclough, Cleveland Taylor, Jim Goodwin, Kevan Hurst, Paul Hayes, Jonathan Forte. Subs: Josh Lillis, Dave Mulligan, Jack Cork, Matt Sparrow, Martin Paterson.
Burnley's team for the Carling Cup tie at Grimsby last Tuesday showed nine changes from the side that had beaten West Brom on the opening day of the season, but Steve Cotterill is likely to revert as close as possible to the side that beat West Brom.
With Wayne Thomas now a Southampton player there will have to be at least one change from that side and that is certain to be filled by one of the two signings this week, David Unsworth or Clarke Carlisle.
Both could play if captain Steven Caldwell is ruled out with his hamstring injury, but the latest news is that Caldwell will be fit and Steve Cotterill has hinted that, with a pre-season behind him, Clarke Carlisle is the most likely replacement for Thomas.
Other than that, I can see the side being very similar if not the same as a week ago with possible changes on the bench, and if that's the case we will line up:
Gabor Kiraly, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Jon Harley, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs from: Brian Jensen, David Unsworth, James O'Connor, John Spicer, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones, Ade Akinbiyi, Kyle Lafferty.
Does anyone really need reminding of our last league visit to Scunthorpe? Let's go back just over seven years, to the 6th May 2000. We knew what we needed to do. We needed to get a better result than Gillingham and they were playing at Wrexham. If Gillingham won there was nothing we could do, but if we could just get a better result then we would go up with Preston.
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There wasn't a long wait for some good news, just eleven minutes gone and news came through that Wrexham, managed by Brian Flynn who we hoped would do us a favour, had scored. The goalscorer was a defender unknown to us by the name of Mark McGregor and he'd hammered it in from some distance. The away end lifted as one, the noise was deafening, the tension grew.
We were in pole position but ten minutes later we were back on our heels as Scunthorpe took the lead against us. Lee Hodges, often a thorn in our side, got it and we were back to square one, and that meant a play off position.
Nothing changed until four minutes before half time when Micky Mellon scored another cracking goal to bring us level. There were daft rumours of Wrexham having scored again but they were nothing but rumours, still they were in front and we were level. That was good enough.
The tension in the second half just grew and grew. We introduced Glen Little with 26 minutes to go, he came on for Graham Branch (yes Branchy was preferred to Glen in the starting line up). Seven minutes later he lifted the away end again after lashing the ball home right in front of the Burnley contingent.
In front, Gillingham still behind, not too long left. Could we relax? No way, the tension got even worse. The final whistle blew, we'd won, Wrexham were still winning but there were five minutes still to play. I sat almost motionless and waited, and waited, and waited.
Meanwhile the players were back in the dressing room and Stan Ternent went out to try and get the news he so wanted from Wrexham. When he got it he went back into the dressing room and calmly announced it. Outside, on the pitch, all hell broke loose. We were back, after five years we'd got ourselves back into the second tier.
Stan, looking out on the fans, said: "It means so much to them, it means so much to them. And it means a lot to me too." Yes it did mean that much to us, it still does, and we're still here. Scunthorpe had gone down, but they finally got back up and now they've won another promotion.
Whatever happens today, it really won't be like 6th May 2000.
The teams were;
Scunthorpe: Ross Turner, Paul Harsley, Andy Dawson, Richard Logan, Chris Hope, Justin Walker (Terry Barwick 45), Lee Hodges (Guy Ipoua 87), Steve Torpey, Brian Quailey, Mark Jackson, Nathan Stanton Subs not used: Gary Bull, Ashley Fickling, Gareth Sheldon
Burnley: Paul Crichton, Dean West, Steve Davis, Mitchell Thomas, Graham Branch (Glen Little 64), John Mullin, Micky Mellon, Paul Cook (Ian Wright 74), Lenny Johnrose, Andy Cooke, Andy Payton (Ronnie Jepson 90) Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Alan Lee
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1987/88 | 4 | h | 1-1 | 6,353 | Taylor |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 5,347 | Britton |
1988/89 | 4 | a | 1-2 | 6,358 | O'Connell |
| . | . | h | 0-1 | 6,813 | . |
1989/90 | 4 | a | 0-3 | 4,745 | . |
| . | FA | a | 2-2 | 5,698 | Deary Mumby |
| . | . | h | 1-1* | 7,682 | Eli |
| . | . | h | 5-0 | 7,429 | Eli(2) Futcher(2) Hardy |
| . | 4 | h | 0-1 | 4,098 | . |
1990/91 | 4 | h | 1-1 | 8,557 | Francis |
| . | . | a | 3-1 | 4,449 | Futcher Eli SP Davis |
1991/92 | 4 | h | 1-1 | 8,419 | Farrell |
| . | . | a | 2-2 | 5,303 | Conroy(pen) SM Davis |
1999/2000 | 2 | h | 1-2 | 10,752 | Payton |
| . | . | a | 2-1 | 5,862 | Mellon Little |
2000/01 | FA | h | 2-2 | 8,054 | I Moore Johnrose |
| . | . | a | 1-1 | 4,709 | Payton - lost on penalties |
2003/04 | LC | a | 3-2 | 2,915 | Chadwick Blake I Moore |