Scunthorpe United reserves beat Rotherham United reserves 3-0 at Parkgate with Jack Dyche, Billy Kee and Piteu Crouz grabbing the goals.
Dyche opened the scoring in the early exchanges before Kee scored from close range to extend the Iron’s lead before half time.A second half penalty that was won and scored by Crouz was the final goal of the game as Scunthorpe executed a professional away performance to secure a clean sheet and a win.
Crouz was one of three triallists from Leeds United on show, alongside Liam Bennett and Isaac Asensso. Callum Chippendale was another triallist, from Bradford City, as was Ross Colquhon, who was from Sunderland.
Scunthorpe made a strong start to the opening exchanges and had the game’s first opportunity after three minutes when Piteu Crouz pulled a shot wide from a dangerous position. The attacking start from Andy Dawson’s team was rewarded just a few minutes later when Jack Dyche got the opening goal of the match.
Once again Crouz was involved as his shot could only be parried by Rotherham goalkeeper Scott Loach and Dyche was on hand to slot in the finish.
Rotherham responded well to the goal by exerting some pressure of their own but were struggling to carve out any opportunities to test Iron goalkeeper Sam Slocombe.
An injury to Adam Johnson forced the Millers into an early substitution, with Tom Rose coming on in his place. The influential Crouz almost doubled the lead for the away side when his close range header brought a smart save from Loach but it wasn’t long before the Iron were celebrating again.
This time it was Billy Kee who provided the finish to put Scunthorpe two goals to the good inside the opening half an hour.
The goal was the last meaningful attack from Dawson’s team and they played out the rest of the half with little trouble at the back, with Rotherham’s Darnelle Bailey-King’s speculative chip that travelled over Slocombe’s crossbar being the closest the home side had come all half.
They were forced into another change before the break as Charlie Shelley came on for Mason Warren but still headed into the break two down.
The second half began again at Parkgate with no further changes to either side and Scunthorpe continued to suppress all of the Millers’ attacks, with Charlie Cleminshaw marshalling the defence impressively. It was defender Cleminshaw who had the first golden chance of the second period when he leaped highest to head the ball towards the top corner but Loach tipped the ball onto the crossbar to deny the youngster.
Moments later and Crouz was once again in the thick of the action when he darted into the Rotherham penalty area and was tripped to earn his side a penalty. After getting back to his feet, he confidently grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and placed it past Loach to put the Iron three goals ahead.
Andy Dawson made his first substitution after 75 minutes when he brought off Isaac Asensso and replaced him with Watkis. The penalty was the last piece of goalmouth action in the ninety minutes as the away side kept possession well and marshalled the remaining minutes to secure a deserved clean sheet and win.