Scunthorpe United FC

We continue to take a look back at the hat-tricks that have been scored for the Iron since their admission to the league in 1950.

At the time of writing, there have been 41 trebles netted by United players in league games and we're going to delve into the Iron Vault to remember them and, if applicable, following the subsequent career of the player who scored it.

The Iron's very first hat-trick as a league side came in their 11th game in Division Three North as Ted Gorin bagged all three strikes in a home win against Accrington Stanley.

For this issue though, we fast-forward 32 hat-tricks and 50 years later, with Guy Ipoua making Scunthorpe United history with back-to-back trebbles for the side.

ONLY SEVEN DAYS EARLIER...

The one thing that makes this quartet of strikes on the day against Mansfield even more special was that a week prior he had netted another three in the FA Cup win over Hartlepool United to become the first - and only - player to achieve the feat. Even Steve MacLean, who would follow him a couple of years later with three hat-tricks for the side, wouldn't be able to get two back-to-back.

It would be a new chapter in the history books for the Iron, with the then-24-year-old Cameroonian striker taking his goalscoring tally to an incredible 13 goals in his last seven home games.

The 6-0 win would be the Iron's second best win at Glanford Park, only beaten by the 7-0 hammering of Northampton Town in October 1993.

Ipoua's four goals would also make him just the fourth player to score four goals in a league game for Scunthorpe, with the first coming back in 1955 (Jack Hubbard v Hartlepool United, 5-1). Barrie Thomas managed the feat twice, once with four goals and once with five. The latter came in the club's record 8-1 win against Luton Town, while the last player to achieve the feat was in the other 8-1 win at Torquay United; Andy McFarlane.

THE WIN WAS COMPLETE BEFORE IPOUA GOT GOING...

With four goals on the day, Ipoua was obviously the man of the match, but the win was already sealed before he netted any of his four goals.

It was 2-0 after just five minutes, but it was Bjarni Larusson and Steve Torpey who both scored to shock the Stags and compound them to a very long afternoon.

The Cameroonian would then take centre stage, notching once in the first-half to make it 3-0 before a trio of strikes in the second half to double the Iron's tally from three to six. Mansfield had nothing to offer in the game, only mustering up one shot on goal throughout the 90 minutes - and even that was off target, with Tommy Evans collecting his eighth, and easiest, clean sheet.

Mansfield had to do more than half of the work with ten men, with Lee Williams lunging in twice in the space of ten minutes to earn himself two yellow cards.

Ironically, it was the 37-year-old between the sticks for the Stags who would be their star performer despite picking the ball out of his net on six occasions, with the part-time goalkeeper coach for his opposite number pulling off a string of fine saves throughout the match.

Goal three, and the first of four for Ipoua arrived on 27 minutes with Torpey flicking on a Russ Wilcox ball forward allowing Ipoua to race clear and slot past Bobby Mimms.

56 minutes in and it was 4-0, with Ipoua now converting a right-winged cross by Gareth Sheldon, squeezing a shot beyong Mimms. The Mansfield goalkeeper was called into action twice more to deny the pending hat-trick hero, but it was to be him who gave him the chance on a plate for the trebble when he fouled to concede a penalty before diving the wrong way from the subsequent kick from 12-yards in the 61st minute.

Three minutes from time, the scoring was complete. Ipoua was unmarked, Torpey pulled the ball back to him and he did the rest.

The statistics would be startling - 20 shots to one, 12-0 on target with a 50% success rate in terms of goals. 

"A TEAM EFFORT"...

Reaction from manager Brian Laws after the emphatic win lifted te side to sixth in the table: "Congratulations to Guy. He is on fire at the moment but I am sure he will be the first to agree - as he did last week - that it is all down to the players around him because they had to break their necks to get there to create the chances.

"It's easy to give a man of the match award to a player who has just scored four goals, but I thought his partner up front Steve Torpey was awesome.

"I would have given him my man of the match award, but there were a lot of other excellent performances. I could go through the whole team."

TEAM: Evans, Wilcox (Fickling, 67), Dawson, Stanton, Jackson, Larusson, Sheldon (Morrison, 78), Hodges (Brough, 67), Ipoua, Torpey, Calvo-Garcia.

UNUSED SUBS: Graves, Herrick.

...FROM THE MAN HIMSELF

Guy Ipoua also spoke following the match: "I had been a bit disappointed not to get four goals in a game before. I knew they just had to come after "scoring" four times against Torquay but having two goals disallowed and "scoring" four times last week at Hartlepool, but having one disallowed.

"The goals I have been scoring in the past few weeks have given me a lot of confidence and I just want to go on scoring more times for the club. I know the spotlight is going to be on me again after another four goals, but I don't want that. It is a team game and we played well as a team."

THE FACT OF THE MATTER...