Once an Iron... Andy Flounders

After arriving at the club from Hull City in April 1987, Andy Flounders went on to establish himself as a prolific goalscorer in United colours.

During the coming days, we'll republish past interviews with legendary former Iron players from our matchday programme.

Flounders achieved two promotions with the Tigers in the mid 80’s before Richard Money, then caretaker manager of the Scunthorpe, expressed an interest in acquiring the frontman’s services.

Andy spoke to us firstly about how his transfer to the club came about.

“Brian Horton (then manager of Hull City) told me that a couple of clubs had expressed an interest in signing me around April time in 1987 and Scunthorpe was one of them,” he said.

“I ended up coming down for a chat with Richard Money and after I was made aware that I wasn’t going to get many opportunities with Hull, I decided to make the move in order to improve my chances of playing first team football.

“I’d been in and out of the team during my last season with Hull and Brian had brought a lot of players to the club from down south who he knew from his days at Luton and Watford.

“I was getting married the following summer and I’d just bought a new house in the Hull area so it was important that I didn’t move too far away and Scunthorpe just ticked that box.”

One of the main factors in Flounders’ decision to join the club was the style of play that United deployed.

After making a good start, goal scoring wise, to his spell in claret and blue, Andy managed to continue his rich vein of form in front of goal once Mick Buxton was appointed as manager.

“Scunthorpe liked to pass the ball around and certainly weren’t a kick and rush side which suited me just fine and I think that really helped me to settle in to life at the club over those first few games,” he continued. 

“There had been various rumours circulating that Scunthorpe were interested in signing me for a good few weeks before the move actually happened and even though the club were in the bottom half of the table, I was actually quite surprised at their style of play.

“I only joined in April but I remember scoring five or six goals before the season was over so my start in general wasn’t too bad.

“You’re always looking to score as a striker and you’re always pleased when you manage to do so but I don’t necessarily think that any game you score in as a striker is always a good game because you need to contribute to the team in other ways as well, which I think I did.

“Mick Buxton took over soon after I joined the club and I managed to continue where I left in terms of goal scoring which was obviously very pleasing.”

In just over four years as a Scunthorpe player, Andy developed into one of the club’s key players and went on to form a fruitful strike partnership with current United Academy manager Tony Daws.

The duo were a constant threat to opposition defences in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and Flounders also believes that the team chemistry played a big part.

He added: “We all seemed to get on really well together as a team and we all worked well with each other during my time there which always helps.

“A lot of the players we had had been released from other teams and it was almost a last chance saloon scenario for a few of them.

“It was just unfortunate that we missed out on going up two or three seasons on the trot because I certainly believe we deserved it.

“I played with someone called Billy Whitehurst at Hull who was a big bustling centre forward and we linked up very well together but Tony Daws was small, quick and very different to Billy.

“Myself and Tony got somewhere between 40 and 50 goals for two or three seasons on the trot so those campaigns, in terms of goal scoring, will go down as being very memorable for me personally as I’m sure they were for Tony as well.”

The Iron reached the third round of the 1988-1889 League Cup and that run that included a 4-1 victory over Chelsea on home soil before a 2-2 draw in West London meant United recorded a 6-3 aggregate triumph.

Flounders scored in the return leg at Stamford Bridge and the occasion in general is one that remains memorable for the 50-year-old.

“We had a good run in the League Cup in 1988, beating Chelsea over two legs in one of the rounds and I managed to score at Stamford Bridge which was nice,” Andy continued.

“They weren’t as much of a dominant force back then as they are now but they were still a very good side with some fine players.

“To be honest, I have a lot of good memories from my time at Scunthorpe because I was part of a very good team and we always seemed to win most of our games but we just couldn’t get over that final hurdle.”

After a successful spell in front of goal in North Lincolnshire, Flounders departed for Rochdale at the end of the 1990-1991 campaign.

And whilst the forward looked set to prolong his Iron career at first, the deal fell through before Andy joined up with the Spotland side.

“I was offered a new contract at Scunthorpe at the end of the 1990-1991 season which, at that time, was a pretty good deal. I used to commute from Hull to training so Scunthorpe offered to put £30 worth of petrol a week into my car which meant that then I’d just have to pay the Humber Bridge toll fee,” he explained.

“I was also given a £40 raise which I thought was fair enough and everything had been agreed until Bill Green rang me up one night and said that they were still going to offer me a contract but they it had been decided that the club weren’t going to pay my expenses so the new deal wasn’t actually going to be making any difference to me whatsoever.

“Rochdale then expressed an interest in signing me so I went over for a chat, agreed the contract and the night before I was due to sign there, Bill rang me again to propose a new deal but by then it was too late because the whole situation had gone on for two-to-three weeks and I thought that if they were going to offer me the deal then they would have offered it to me straight away instead of keeping me hanging on.

“I’d probably say that I spent the best years of my career at Scunthorpe overall, even though I gained a couple of promotions at Hull but after Rochdale, I spent a little bit of time out on loan before retiring.

“I started my career with Hull so obviously they hold a close place in my heart but I will always remember my time with Scunthorpe fondly as well.

“It’s a bit of a shame the way it all ended but I certainly enjoyed my time at the club and I still look out for the results even now.”