The Iron were set to kick-start their Isuzu FA Trophy campaign this afternoon when they welcomed Northern Premier League side Warrington Rylands to the Attis Arena for a second round tie.
The last of the regional bracket of the competition, Scunthorpe were hoping to move into the hat for the next round given what looked like a favourable fixture on paper.
On the back of an eventful week within the club that saw two additions to the first team squad there were many changes made to the Iron starting line-up with the busy Christmas period fast approaching. Young shot stopper Maison Campbell was given the nod between the sticks for the Iron and he was set to be protected by a rotated backline that included the returning Will Evans and natural wing-back Tyler Denton. Only one of United’s recent additions would be selected to start with prolific forward Mark Beck being chosen to lead the line and recently resigned Luke Williams was named on the substitutes bench.
The Iron got the game underway on home soil and set about imposing themselves onto their opponents with a number of fast-paced attacks that were being created by the wing-back who were doing their best to stretch the Rylands.
A first chance of the game would formulate for United in the third minute through midfielder Max Brogan, after receiving the ball on the edge of the area Brogan drove at the Rylands defence and unleashed a thunderous shot that had goalkeeper Luke Pilling routed to the spot but the ball cannoned back off the bar.
Scunthorpe were in complete control of the fixture and continued to apply pressure on the Warrington defence from the flanks. Brogan turned provider this time for the hosts as he released Ross Barrows down the wing, despite having time to cross into the area Barrows raised his head and spotted Pilling off his line and the right-back’s ambitious chipped effort dropped just wide of the near post.
It took until the 20th minute for United to finally break the deadlock and it was broken in tremendous fashion. Similar to Brogan’s previous strike, Kian Scales received the ball 20-yards from goal and didn’t hesitate to try his luck from range as his beautifully finessed shot curled straight into the top corner for 1-0.
Despite the Iron’s impressive start their lead would be short-lived as the visitors would hit back with their first opportunity. It was a set-piece that would be Scunthorpe’s undoing as a delicately clipped cross made its way to the back post where George Waring was waiting, after wriggling past his marker the former Stoke forward headed the ball past Campbell before being shown a card for his excessive celebrations that followed.
Despite conceding that goal against the run of play the Iron refused to let their grip on the game slip and proceeded to flood forward with hopes of regaining their lead. Pilling would be the hero for his side mere minutes after the leveller as he sprung down to deny Beck a fabulous debut goal from the forward's volley.
Beck was introducing himself to Scunthorpe fans in style with some impressive hold-up play that was providing the ground for countless attacks, not only was he linking up the play, but he was doing his best to get on the end of deliveries into the box and did so late in the half when he rose highest to meet the ball with a powerful header that drew an outstanding save out of Pilling to flick the ball onto the post.
This would be the last action of the first period and United were very unfortunate not to be in a storming lead after an extremely positive performance.
Supporters in the stadium would have been optimistic for the second half however it couldn’t have been a worse start for Scunthorpe as they fell behind from another set-piece. After recycling the initially cleared free kick a ball was whipped to the back stick and into the path of Matt Regan’s disguised run for a simple header to give them the lead.
In a desperate attempt to try and gain an equaliser Butler went to his bench for reinforcements; however, the triple change he made weren’t able to make an impact until the 75th minute.
It was one of the changes Carlton Ubaezuonu that at last created a chance for the Iron as he received the ball from Beck on the left of the penalty area and flashed a low shot across the box that took a crucial nick of a defender to turn the ball past the post.
In the minutes that followed that Carlton chance he was again at the heart of the Scunthorpe attack as another desperate chance went begging from a long-winded cross, it was a low-driven cross into the box that was met but Ubaezuonu and his tremendous bicycle kick rattled the crossbar to condemn the Iron to a disappointing defeat and their exit from the FA Trophy.
IRON: Campbell, Kelly, Kouogun, Evans, Clunan (Nicholson, 85), Fishburn (Ubaezuonu, 61), Brogan, Beck, Scales (Williams, 61), Denton, Barrows (Roberts, 61).
IRON UNUSED SUBS: Fitzsimons.
