Iron manager Nigel Adkins is excited about the prospect of facing Newcastle United at St James' Park on Wednesday night.

Scunthorpe will take around 1,800 fans to the North East for a Goliath versus David encounter.

United are massive underdogs and aren't expected to get anything there, but that's a situation which Adkins and his troops thrive on. Just like earlier in the season when his team defeated the Magpies 2-1 at Glanford Park through a Martyn Woolford brace.

"It is a fantastic game for us," he told The Iron Player.

"We strived so hard to get into the Championship, and we've done it.

"We're in a league where we can go and play Newcastle United at St James' Park in front of 55,000 people.

"It's a dream game for all the supporters. That's why you work hard to get into this division, so you can have that opportunity.

"Newcastle are going to get promoted as clear winners of the division so Scunthorpe might never have another opportunity to play at Newcastle United in the league.

"All our supporters can go there and enjoy the whole occasion. We're going to go all out to get the result and a victory.

"They will have revenge on their mind because we beat them at our place earlier in the season.

"I did see it in the programme when we went to watch them the other day that they will be out for that.

"We've worked very hard on the training ground. I felt we almost put in a perfect away performance on Saturday.

"It's music to the ears of a manager when you hear the opposition chant 'boring, boring Scunthorpe' when you go away from home and do exactly what you set out to do.

"We're away from home again but we're going to adopt a different gameplan to try and give ourselves three points because people don't necessarily expect us to do that."

It was quite a favourable night for the Iron in terms of Championship results on Tuesday night, with Crystal Palace losing to Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday drawing at Preston North End.

That means a win at St James' Park will see United climb to 20th, with their next two matches at home against the bottom two of Plymouth Argyle and Peterborough United.

"We have every confidence that we can achieve what we've set out to do," added Adkins.

"We've said since day one that the league table will fluctuate and there are a lot of twists and turns to go.

"Everyone expected Scunthorpe to be bottom of the league and relegated by Christmas but it hasn't been that way.

"We're prepared for the final 11 games and confident we set out what we wanted to achieve."

See much more from Nigel Adkins and Andrew Wright on The Iron Player.