United's official matchday magazine THE IRON has won a major national award.

It was handed the CSI Sports Best Matchday Programme at the Football League Awards in London on Sunday night, beating off competition from the 71 other clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

The shortlist of eight on the gala night at Grosvenor House also included Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest, Preston North End, Southend United, Huddersfield Town, Burton Albion and Rotherham United.

Our programme which, at a square size and 78 pages, is the largest ever produced by the club, was crowned Best League One Programme by the Northern Programme Club last season and has received much critical acclaim over the course of the past two campaigns from various publications.

"We're absolutely delighted to have won," said editor and designer Chris Mumby.

"A lot of thanks must go out to our many contributors, because without them the programme wouldn't be what it is, as well as our club photographers and everyone who sells the programme on a matchday in addition to all the people who buy it.

"We'd also like to thank Printability 2000 Ltd, who have printed our programme for the last few years.

"With six home games left now we're going to try and finish the season as strongly as possible.

"Then we will have a big overhaul during the summer to make next year's programme even better."

A spokesperson for the Football League's judging panel added: "In this category the judges were looking for excellence in design, use of imagery, editorial, features, innovation and value for money for match programmes from the 2009/10 season.

"Scunthorpe United has made a concerted effort to make their programme more interactive this year and the judges were quick to pick up on this.

"With 20 different volunteer writers, a Face in the Crowd competition, and a weekly interview with an overseas fan to name a few, it would seem that Scunthorpe have made a real effort to fulfill their objective.

"The pull out collector and increased Junior Iron coverage has also made their programme appeal to wide ranging ages.

"The judges were pleased to see a family message promoted throughout the programme as there are contributions ranging from junior fans to the club management.

"Increased historical content, detailed coverage of the reserve and youth teams and lots of meaningful statistics are features that have gone down well with their fans.

"Furthermore, 14 extra pages of content and adopting more of a magazine format has resulted in THE IRON becoming a top flight worthy match day programme and a real contender."

The latest edition of THE IRON will be on sale this Saturday for just £3.00 when United host Plymouth Argyle.