United were held to a point against a Buxton side that fought valiantly under the lights of the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium.
The Iron were back in Vanarama National League North action following an impressive 7-2 Lincolnshire Senior Cup pummelling over Gainsborough Trinity in midweek. United’s opponents for the day were a well-knitted Buxton outfit that at the half-way point in the campaign seemed resound to midtable mediocrity. The Bucks had previously defeated Jimmy Dean’s team 3-0 in the rearranged reverse fixture at Glanford Park.
Scunthorpe made one change to the side that emphatically beat promotion challengers Chorley a week prior, with influential winger Cal Roberts picking up a slight knock in training. He was forced to miss out and was hence replaced by the ever-troublesome Jason Law. Law’s starting XI inclusion meant that after impressing in midweek Cameron Wilson regained his spot amongst the bench.
The hosts got the encounter underway, the Iron had their work cut out for them for the first period as they were attacking up the Derbyshire hillside. The game began with a flurry of early fouls that appeared to be preventing both sides eligibility to progress up the field.
With home advantage on their side, the Bucks began the brighter and in doing so came exceedingly close to taking the lead. Creative midfielder Max Brogan received the ball in a promising position on the edge of the Iron area. With space and time to compose himself, Brogan sent a finessed effort towards Ross Fitzsimons in the Scunthorpe goal, who palmed the ball into the path of Dylan Mottley-Henry for Buxton. Under pressure from the backtracking defenders, the former Bradford man could only turn the ball wide of the target from point blank range.
Scunthorpe were fortunate to still find themselves level and with this in mind began to grow into the fixture. Law and his marker Connor Brown had been in a tightly contested battle throughout the first half, but on his first opportunity to escape from the left-backs’ clutches Law cut inside and released a splendid low driven strike that caused Max Dearnley between the posts to leap into action and turn the ball wide of goal.
Following numerous early chances from both sides the game had fallen into a stalemate that showed no sign of changing, as neither side were able to break down each other’s defence.
With five minutes of first half action remaining, Scunthorpe again called Dearnley into action from range. United’s top scorer Danny Whitehall had been thriving in the cold conditions and when he found himself unopposed 20 yards out he stung a fierce effort that appeared to be nestling in the bottom corner if not for the intervention of the former Farsley shot stopper who gathered the ball calmly. With that referee Shaun Taylor blew his whistle to signal half-time.
As the sides came back out, the clash was in desperate need of a moment of magic that had yet to be seen in the opening 45. Dean’s half-time team talk appeared to have kicked United up a gear as his team dominated the early stages.
The Iron came the closest to finding the opener through work-horse midfielder Kian Scales. The former Bradford man collected a stray pass deep within the Bucks half and saw his chance to let fly, his shot was stuck cleanly however a desperate deflection from man-mountain defender Max Hunt steered the ball into Dearnley’s clutches.
Jake Wright had been in superb goalscoring from of late for Buxton, however on the day he had been throwing his body around a fair amount which had led him to pick up an early yellow card. With 60 minutes on the clock the striker found himself incredibly lucky to remain on the field of play after he planted a malicious stamp on the ankle of Connor Smith. Despite the challenge being arguably worthy of a red card, and at the very least a second yellow, he was shown nothing for the tackle.
United now found themselves with an abundance of momentum, and Buxton appeared to be running out of energy as the cracks began to emerge. Scunthorpe’s creativity was allowing them to create numerous opportunities with the most notable coming from a trade-mark Jacob Butterfield long shot that grazed the Buxton bar on its way behind.
With ten minutes of action remaining, the Iron believed to have finally broken the dead lock through an exquisite touch and half-volley from Whitehall from seemingly nowhere, however before the striker could wheel away in celebration the outstretched flag of assistant referee Ceri Williams signalled Whitehall to be offside.
With time running out, both sides were on the hunt for a late winner it appeared that it was neither side turn to take all three points. After a prolonged period of additional time Buxton’s resolute defensive display was concluded by the referee’s whistle.
After a gruelling contest in Derbyshire, the points were evenly split. The draw signifies that Scunthorpe sit at the summit of the Vanarama National league North table over Christmas.
IRON: Fitzsimons, Ogle, Evans, Boyce, Clunan, Butterfield, Scales, Smith, Law (Wilson, 80), Denton, Whitehall (Elliott, 80).
IRON Subs: Kelly, Kouogun, Shrimpton.