Scunthorpe United FC

The Iron were beaten 4-0 by Peterborough United at Glanford Park.

Manager Mark Robins opted to make two changes from Tuesday night's victory at Bury, as Jordan Clarke and Charlie Goode came in for Scott Wiseman and David Mirfin.

The rest of the starting eleven remained unchanged, with Luke Daniels in goal, a back four of Clarke, Goode, Niall Canavan and Scott Laird. Neal Bishop and Jack King were the midfield two once again, and in front of them was an attack of Tommy Rowe, Luke Williams, Paddy Madden and front man Darius Henderson.

After making a bright start to the match, which saw Williams hit the target twice, the Iron fell behind. Posh striker Connor Washington nipped in ahead of Daniels to head home in the fourth minute.

The visitors nearly doubled their advantage 10 minutes later but, after reacting first to Daniels' parry, Michael Smith could only blaze his close range effort over the crossbar, and into the traveling Peterborough fans behind the goal.

United were keen to hit back, and they went close to leveling things up through Henderson. The striker got ahead of his man at the near post, but he could only steer Madden's cross past the outside of Ben Alnwick's goal.

A moment of magic from Harry Beautyman almost put Graham Westley's side two ahead. The midfielder struck the ball on the volley from the edge of the area, and it looked to be arrowing towards the top right hand corner. However, Daniels got across his goal quickly, to claw the shot out.

The Iron kept pressing for the equaliser. Three minutes before the interval, Williams linked up well with Henderson and then hit a long range effort, which Alnwick in the Peterborough goal did well to hold.

Madden then went close soon after too. Much like Williams, the Irishman found some space, and then tested Alnwick with a low drive.

After keeping out Beautyman once already in the half, Daniels was forced into another spectacular save, right on the stroke of half time. The Iron 'keeper reacted well to divert the midfielder's close range strike over the crossbar.

This was the last action of the first period, as shortly after the half-time whistle was blown.

Three minutes after the restart, United were hit with a sucker punch. In his attempts to clear the ball, Henderson was penalised for a trip inside of the penalty area, which subsequently meant the reward of a spot kick. From the resulting penalty, Michael Bostwick stepped up and lashed the ball down the middle of the goal, to put the visitors two ahead.

It took United a while to get a foothold in the second period, but they still continued to probe. With 20 minutes to play, full-back Clarke got to the byline and delivered a dangerous cross. Williams was waiting to tap home, but he was prevented from doing so by some last ditch Posh defending.

The visitors continued to provide a threat on the break though, and they should have gone three up when substitute Marcus Maddison hit the post following a swift counter attack.

Two minutes after going close, Peterborough did make it three. Washington, who put the visitors ahead in the first half, made room for himself and brilliantly curled a right footed strike into the far corner of Daniels' goal.

Westley's team added a fourth on the stroke of full-time, when striker Washington broke the offside trap and finished under Daniels, to complete his hat-trick.

TEAM LINE-UPS
Scunthorpe United: Daniels, Clarke, Goode (McAllister 77), Canavan, Laird, Bishop, King, Madden, Williams, Rowe (McSheffrey 46), Henderson (van Veen 77).
Substitutes not used: Anyon, Wiseman, Boyce, Adelakun.

Peterborough United: Alnwick, Smith, Taylor, Bostwick, Oztumer (Fox 76), Aldmeida Santos, Washinghton, Beautyman (Maddison 66), Angol (Samuelson 68), Elder, Forrester.
Substitutes not used: Henry, Baldwin, Coulibaly, Addison.

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