Report: Iron 3-0 King's Lynn Town

In what was the Iron’s final match of 2024 they would welcome promotion challengers King’s Lynn to the Attis Arena.

Both sides came into the encounter in impressive form and unbeaten in a number of games (King's Lynn, seven, and the Iron, six), because of this both the Linnets and Scunthorpe were looking to end the calendar year in style with the winner being guaranteed to go top of the Vanarama National League North table for the New Year.

With regard to United’s team news for the New Year’s Eve fixture, manager Andy Butler made just one alteration from his side that saw off Peterborough Sports 1-0 on Boxing Day. This change came in the form of a forced one as attacker Will Harris was recalled back to his parent club Spennymoor Town after the conclusion of his month-long loan. As a result Harris was replaced in the starting XI by the Iron’s returning star Cal Roberts who’s return to full fitness was a major positive for the Iron. Elsewhere, Roberts’ position on the bench was quickly filled by another returning attacker. After being absent from Scunthorpe’s squad for the last three months, Jason Law finally returned to the match day squad and was ready to make an immediate impact.

The hosts got the game underway attacking towards the AMS stand and immediately set about imposing a high tempo style of play onto their opponents with a number of inventive attacks that caught Adam Lakeland’s Linnets off guard.

With five minutes on the clock the Iron supporters would be given something to celebrate through forward Danny Whitehall. After a crunching challenge in the centre of midfield from Joe Rowley to regain possession, Scunthorpe would begin a surge up the field from Carlton Ubaezuonu. The winger drove the ball to the byline and fizzed a stunning cross to the back post that evaded the keeper’s jump, hitting the unexpecting Whitehall in the progress before trickling into the bottom corner. As the Scunthorpe faithful erupted their cheers were quickly dispersed by referee Jonathan Maskrey who signalled for a handball deeming that Whitehall had slapped the ball into the vacant goal.

Despite this Scunthorpe weren’t downhearted by their misfortune not to be in the lead and would finally pull ahead on 17 minutes through a perfectly executed set-piece routine. It was captain Michael Clunan who stood over the corner and caught his opponents out with a short one-two with Rowley, this allowed Clunan to work some space before driving a low cross into the box where the unmarked Cal Roberts was waiting to smash home the much-deserved opener.

The Linnets are renowned for their possession-based football but weren’t able to keep up with the Iron during the first half and as a result would find themselves two goals down just a matter of minutes later. This time it would be from the penalty spot that United would strike as Whitehall wouldn’t be denied his goal this time around. It was Scunthorpe’s number 9 that won the spot kick after he was wrestled to the floor by Lynn captain Greg Taylor, when stepping up Whitehall would do as he often does by calmly slotting the ball into the bottom corner for a two-goal advantage.

In what had been an almost perfect first half display from United, it would be dampened by a serious looking injury for Scunthorpe right-back Ross Barrows. The former King’s Lynn defender Barrows turned awkwardly before dropping to the floor in agony.

Despite Barrows needing immediate assistance and an eventual stretcher, play would continue until the ball would go out of play and this allowed the Linnets to continue their attack down the left-flank. Winger Josh Hmami used the injury of Barrows to break clear and drive into the area, with a clear overlap Hmami chose to go alone and drove a goal bound effort towards the bottom corner of the Scunthorpe goal that was brilliantly deflected away from the target by the outstretched leg of Andrew Boyce.

With the end of a dominant first half display from the Iron in sight there would be just enough time for Scunthorpe to grab their third of the afternoon, and who else would it be but Whitehall. It was a splitting through ball that carved open the King’s Lynn defence and set Whitehall on his way in behind, after controlling the pass Whitehall would bide his time before beautifully placing a low-driven effort beneath Boyes to extend his teams advantage going into the break.

With the second half underway, the visitors made a double change in an act of desperation that almost an instant impact due to the persistence of Fleetwood Town loanee Theo Williams. The young striker had picked the pocket of Andrew Boyce and raced in behind, however he was subsequently denied by a superb save from Ross Fitzsimons who sprung down well to bail out his team and push the ball clear of danger.

Despite Scunthorpe still maintaining the majority of the ball another chance would emerge for the Linnets in the 55th minute through the second of their half-time substitutes. This time it was prolific striker Gold Omotayo that came close to pulling a goal back when he latched onto a deep Williams cross to the back post. The headed effort from the Nigerian was seemingly flying past Fitzsimons until it cannoned back off the post to keep Fitzsimons’ clean sheet intact.

With half an hour remaining, a golden opportunity would present itself to the Iron for their fourth of the game that would’ve almost certainly killed off the tie. It was Roberts’ craftmanship that created the chance for Ubaezuonu as he crossed a ball into the area that was knocked down by substitute Mark Beck, but somehow Carlton missed his effort and couldn’t steer home a volley to open his league account for the club.

As time advanced the Iron were proving more and more defensively solid and did a stellar job of limiting their hosts to half-chances and cross that were being comfortably swept up by Fitzsimons and his defensive unit.

Ultimately the Iron weren’t able to add to their three first-half goals but could be proud of their performance as they magnificently saw off their promotion rivals with a comfortable 3-0 victory that sees Scunthorpe propel themselves up to top spot in the NLN where they will hope to remain with a victory over Brackley Town next weekend.

IRON: Fitzsimons, Kouogun, Boyce, Clunan, Whitehall (Beck, 58), Roberts (Williams, 66), Rowley, Ubaezuonu (Evans, 79), Scales, Denton (Law, 71), Barrows (Kelly, 37).