Bottesford Town has provided a range of scorelines in recent years, all in the Iron’s favour though.
Last season saw us run out 6-0 winners, with Matt Godden (three), Andy Welsh, Sean McAllister and Jamie Wootton all notching.The previous three years have all held good first workouts for the squad though, as the Iron look to extend the record to four wins in five years against the side.
Incidentally this is the last of the away non-league pre-season games, with the start of the league fixtures a little under two weeks away.
09/07/11 – Bottesford Town 0-7 Scunthorpe United
The biggest win that the Iron have over Bottesford in recent times opened Scunthorpe’s first season back in League One saw 670 in attendance at Birch Park. It was a reputable scoreline from Scunthorpe, with seven different players netting.
Trialist Mustafa Tiryaki netted the first goal of the afternoon early on, with four other Scunthorpe strikers also grabbing goals on the day. Matt Godden, Chris Dagnall, Bobby Grant and Jordan Robertson all notched, whilst Paul Reid and Mark Duffy completed the sumptuous seven.
Later preseason matches would see the side hit stumbling blocks, and subsequently enduring a lowly finish in League One for the season.
10/07/10 – Bottesford Town 0-4 Scunthorpe United
It was much the same the previous year too; although the Iron only managed four goals, it was still a promising start to pre-season which would also see them convincingly beat Brigg Town and Winterton Rangers, along with victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town.
After a midway drinks break, Garry Thompson got the ball rolling early on in front of 600 spectators after half an hour, putting the ball home after Michael O’Connor forced his way through and into the box, squaring for the grateful Thompson. Cliff Byrne then had a header ruled out for offside, whilst the second half saw ten new faces, one of them Jonathan Forte, who bagged a brace to further add to the scoreline. Bobby Grant provided the filling to the sandwich, notching in between Forte’s duo on his debut for the club.
11/07/09 – Bottesford Town 1-2 Scunthorpe United
The Iron kicked off pre-season in 2009 with a narrow victory over Bottesford Town at Birch Park. It was a game with many chances, most falling to the visitors, and it was the first minute which yielded the first goal. Jonathan Forte got the ball rolling inside the first minute as first year professional Rory Coleman floated in a free-kick from the left wing which was astutely left by Martyn Woolford for Forte to knock home.
Paul Hayes and Kevan Hurst both then went close to double the lead within four minutes, with several other Scunthorpe players all going very close. Despite this, it wasn’t until the 45th minute when the Iron did get their second. Forte advanced past two defenders before collecting the long ball played to him, slotting in neatly underneath the Bottesford stopper.
On 84 minutes, substitute Jack Debenham reduced the deficit, gaining the loudest cheer of the day, sending a shot past Sam Slocombe and into the net from outside the box.