REPORT: IRON 2-1 CHESTER

In what was a sell-out occasion the Iron would end their Vanarama National League North season with a Promotion Final encounter against Chester FC.

In what was another League record in a match between United and the Seals it was destined to be a truly remarkable fixture with the winner earning themselves a spot in the fifth-tier next season.

With regards to the Scunthorpe team selection for the afternoon, Iron manager Andy Butler was forced into making one alteration to the side that defeated Chorley two weeks prior. This would come in the form of a major blow as a straight swap saw the injured Cal Roberts drop out of the side; United’s star man would be replaced by the inform Carlton Ubaezuonu allowing Jason Law to replace him amongst the alternates.

In the early exchanges it was bound to be a nervy affair, which was proven by the vast number of misplaced passes and possession turnovers from both sides. Despite the shaky start to the contest, it would be the Seals who came close to opening the scoring from swift counterattack. After the ball was swept out wide to wing-back Nathan Woodthorpe, he would chop inside and was given the freedom to run at the Scunthorpe defence before driving a low effort towards goal that failed to trouble Ross Fitzsimons as it trickled just wide of the target.

Scunthorpe would reply to this early Chester chance with an opportunity of their own through versatile striker Alfie Beestin. After a neat piece of link-up play from United to open a pocket of space on the edge of the visitor’s penalty area, Beestin would peel away from his marker and attempt to finesse the ball into far bottom corner from a promising position. However, he failed to make the contact he desired and instead could only steer the ball wide of the post.

With 20 minutes on the clock and the game still very much hanging the balance, the pendulum would swing in favour of the Iron who took the lead through Danny Whitehall. After Beestin flicked the ball on towards United captain Michael Clunan in the penalty area, Clunan would provide an acrobatic volley that appeared to be soaring into the bottom corner until it rattled the inside of the post and bounced back into play. This would present Whitehall with the chance to nip in and apply a true poachers finish to give Scunthorpe an all-important lead.

Following the opening goal of proceedings the Iron would work tirelessly to hold onto their slender advantage and would manage to see it out until the break, however Scunthorpe were under no illusion that the second half was bound to be a challenge.

When the sides returned to the Attis Arena turf for the second period Scunthorpe were looking for a second goal to strengthen their lead within the early exchanges of the new half.

Michael Clunan hadn’t scored a goal all season but was certainly feeling confident in his shooting ability on the day as another chance to volley an effort at Jimmy Storer presented itself from the edge of the area. When it sat up for the midfielder on the edge of the box he cleanly struck through the ball and if not for the slightest of deflections to turn the ball over the crossbar the effort seemed well on it’s to flying past the Wolves loanee.

From this point onwards Chester appeared to turn the screw in the game and set about breaking down the Iron’s defensive wall with countless waves of attack. Connor Woods and Dylan Mottley-Henry came close to levelling the scores from range United’s defensive partnership of Maxim Kouogun and Will Evans were the only thing keeping their side Infront with some crucial blocks.

With half an hour of normal time remaining the Cestrians would finally make the breakthrough when they were awarded a penalty after the referee deemed Evans to of handled the ball in the penalty area. From the resulting spot kick Woods would dispatch the ball past Fitzsimons, levelling the score and setting up a nervy end to the game.

The next opportunity in the game would be the closest either side would come to winning the game in normal time. After winning the free-kick himself, Whitehall stepped up 25 yards from goal and set himself to try and beat both the Chester wall and Storer. That is exactly what Whitehall would go on to do as his sensational free kick had the whole stadium stunned as it beat the stranded Storer and would’ve surely won United the game if not for the crossbar that was left reverberating.

This turn of events would set up extra time with all indicators pointing towards the game going the full distance in typical Scunthorpe United fashion.

From minute one of extra time the game was an extremely open affair and there was bound to be chances at either end. This was proven early on when Fitzsimons was called into action to deny defender Tom Leak from point blank range after he’d risen highest in the penalty area to win a header that was fantastically dealt with by the calmest man in the building; the Iron's number one.

In additional time of the first half of extra time the Iron would have lift off as Ubaezuonu conjured all of his remaining injury to put his team into the lead. After a sublime flick on from Mo Fadera to present the Irishman with a chance to shoot, Carlton saw his initial effort blocked before the ball kindly fell back to him allowing to smash the ball beyond Storer and kickstart his team’s promotion party.

The second period of extra time seemed to last forever. As Chester flooded forward Butler worked his magic to interrupt the flow of the game through substitutions and despite what felt like an eternity of additional time, the referee finally sounded the final whistle to signal Scunthorpe’s return to the National League.

IRON: Fitzsimons, Kelly, Kouogun, Evans, Clunan, Beestin (Boyce, 106), Whitehall (Fadera, 96), Rowley (Brogan, 111), Ubaezuonu (Fishburn, 120+1), Starbuck, Denton (Scales, 84).

IRON UNUSED SUBS: Campbell, Law.