Iron full back Jordan Clarke is looking forward to facing Barnsley, a club he has scored more goals against than any other in his career.
He scored his first professional goal against the Tykes, in a 3-0 win for Coventry - a game in which current Iron teammate Gary McSheffrey also found the net for the Sky Blues.That was in a Championship fixture in 2010 but Clarke has a more recent memory of scoring past Tuesday’s opponents. Earlier this season Clarke scored the second of Coventry’s two goals in a 2-2 draw against Barnsley, which proved to be his last for his old club.
With a good history of finding the net against the South Yorkshire club, Clarke says he hopes to get his Scunthorpe goal scoring record up and running against a side he knows how to score against.
He said, “I’ve got a thing with Barnsley apparently. I scored one of my first goals against them at the Ricoh Arena and I scored against them again earlier this season and hopefully it’s a good omen and I can continue that.
“I don’t really know too much about their team as a whole. With or without a new manager teams can be affected both ways so with Barnsley coming here it is a bit of a tricky one. We can’t think about what they’re going to bring to us, we need to think about what we’re going to bring to them and how we are going to win the game. We need to focus on ourselves, get the performance right and put it right from the Preston game.”
Scunthorpe United start the game in 16th position and come up against a Barnsley side who sit two places behind the Iron in 18th in the Sky Bet League One table.
Mark Robins’ side are coming off the back of a defeat which came in Saturday’s 2-0 loss away to Preston North End.
Right-back Clarke believes that Tuesday’s game gives him and the team a great opportunity to make up for the weekend’s defeat.
He added: “Preston are always a tough side to play against whether it is home or away. They are a physical side, we know what they’re about and on the day they put their game plan to better use than we did.
"It’s good that we’ve got a game on Tuesday so we need to rectify it against Barnsley so that’s what we are looking to do and that’s what we are focussing on.”
“It’s always a bonus having good performances at home and also collecting the points. It gives teams coming here a bit more to think about and the fans more to cheer about so it’s definitely a good feel around here so if we can continue that against Barnsley that would be great.
“Obviously we’ve been creating a lot of chances but the luck hasn’t gone our way but the stats in the last couple of home games show that the lads are doing well and creating a lot and luckily we’re finishing those chances.
"We’ve got players scoring from all over the pitch, like Naz (Niall Canavan) from centre half, so with everyone chipping in with goals that’s what we need as a squad.”
The previous meeting between Barnsley and Scunthorpe earlier this season finished 2-1 to the Iron with Paddy Madden scoring both goals.
Madden and his team mates will be hoping for a repeat result at Glanford Park on Tuesday night as they look to get back to winning ways in League One.