With three wins from three under their belts to start the 2025-26 National League campaign, the Iron were looking to extend that record this afternoon when they welcomed early strugglers FC Halifax Town to the Attis Arena on Bank Holiday Monday.
Regarding Andy Butler’s team selection for the fixture there were four forced changed to the Iron side that defeated Sutton United last time out. Danny Whitehall, Tyler Denton and Alfie Beestin all dropped out of the match day squad with forward Declan Howe dropping down to the bench. In place of Whitehall and Howe in the Scunthorpe attack was to be the duo of Mark Beck and Carlton Ubaezuonu, with Branden Horton returning from illness to replace Denton and finally Oli Rose on the back of his first goal for the club, was handed a start over Beestin.
With United kickstarting proceedings on home soil, they would begin the game in a positive manner with an early onslaught of attacks that appeared to catch the visiting Shaymen off guard.
With just under 10 minutes on the clock the Iron would test the Halifax backline with a well-constructed move down the left-hand side. After receiving the ball from Cal Roberts, it would be Oli Ewing’s touch round his marker that allowed him to work the ball along the by line and into the visitor’s penalty area. With a chance to square the ball back to a teammate, Ewing would choose to go alone and in doing so forced goalkeeper Sam Johnson into a smart stop from close range.
The next chance of the game would again come through Ewing who on this occasion tried his luck from range after he himself was brought down by a Halifax defender. With both Ewing and Roberts set to strike the free kick, the midfielder opted to smash the ball down to the goalkeepers right, forcing Johnson into another reflex stop.
As the half progressed the game appeared to descend into somewhat of a stalemate with neither side creating any real chances of note. This was until Will Hugill’s beautifully hit half-volley on 30 minutes became the closest anyone had come to breaking the deadlock, as the strike whistled mere metres wide of the post.
With half-time rapidly approaching the game would swing in the balance of the visitors when the Iron were awarded a red card with referee Andrew Miller reducing Scunthorpe to 10 men after an off the ball altercation involving Iron man Branden Horton.
With Scunthorpe now a man down and left with a mountain to climb for the remainder of proceedings, the Shaymen wouldn’t be able to capitalise on their numerical advantage before the break with the sides going into half-time still firmly deadlocked.
Following the break the visitors would look to make the most of their extra man in the early exchanges with countless early attempts that failed to trouble Campbell between the Scunthorpe sticks.
After defending valiantly to weather the early Shaymen storm, United would look to hit their opponents on a counterattack through the energetic forward play of Roberts down the right. With 52 minutes on the clock Scunthorpe would do just that through there star man when Roberts ventured forward and found space to carry the ball into the area, after working the ball beyond one, two and even three Halifax defenders the winger would strike the ball low and hard with his effort proving too ferocious for Johnson to handle, as it trickled past him to make it 1-0 to the Iron.
Despite being well worth their lead, it wouldn’t take long for the visitors to make it 1-1 with the run of play on their side. After an initial cross to the back post was shepherded wide of the target, an outstretched boot was enough to send the ball back across the Scunthorpe area and back into the path of David Kawa who was waiting to smash the ball home from a matter of yards.
From this moment onwards it was all hands to the pump for United who defended valiantly to keep hold of what would prove to be a valuable point given the circumstances. As for Halifax they were desperately pushing forward for what would’ve surely been a winner but at every avenue they were being seen off by a resolute Scunthorpe defence.
As time ticked by and the game gradually ebbed away into its closing stages, there was obvious frustration from the visitors who just weren’t able to break through the Scunthorpe blockade and no matter how desperate they got, Campbell was doing his very best to diffuse every attack by claiming every cross that came his way.
With that the Iron would be able to hold onto a thoroughly deserved point, maintaining their unbeaten run to start the season and setting themselves up for an enthralling encounter next weekend against Brackley Town.
IRON: Campbell, Rose (Belehouan, 45+2'), Horton, Evans, Boyce, Roberts (Scales, 68'), Rowley, Ubaezuonu, Ewing (Brogan, 68'), Beck (Howe, 45' (Eze 86'), Starbuck.
ATTENDANCE: 5,377 (347 away)
REFEREE: Andrew Miller
