With Forest Green Rovers losing before United’s late kick-off with Carlisle United, the Iron were made the last unbeaten team in the top five tiers of English football, an impressive stat, but one that would be difficult to maintain with the visit of the strong starting Cumbrians.
With regard to United’s team news for the evening, there would be four Iron changes from the side that defeated York City in midweek. Firstly, goalkeeper Rory Watson came into the squad after being unavailable for the previous fixture against his parent club. Elsewhere, a forced change in the United midfield saw the suspended Joe Rowley earn a well-deserved rest, with him being replaced by latest loan signing, Zain Wetbrooke. Finally, Scunthorpe would rotate their front line with Ty Sellars-Fleming and Joey Dawson coming into the side to replace Declan Howe and Danny Whitehall.
When proceedings were set underway at the Attis Arena, the Iron would look to impose themselves on the fixture in the early exchanges with several fast-flowing attacks that were all inevitably dealt with by the Cumbrians’ defence.
The closest that Scunthorpe would come during their period of dominance would come from a set-piece. Won via Oli Ewing when his dancing run between three Carlisle defenders was brought to an end with a crunching challenge. This allowed Cal Roberts to step up to the plate and arrow a free kick towards Gabe Breeze’s top corner, leaving the goalkeeper no chance despite it dropping narrowly over the crossbar.
United would follow up this opportunity with another sustained period of attack that should’ve really resulted in the opener. After a sublime ball over the top of the Carlisle defence by Westbrooke sent Starbuck away down the right flank, the Wing-back would drive the ball across the face of goal and towards Dawson at the back post. With Dawson failing to establish contact on the cross, the ball would fall to Sellars-Fleming at the back post, who somehow saw his shot deflected behind by a Blues defender.
From this moment onwards, the game would swing in favour of the visitors who took the lead against the run of play. It was Stephen Wearne’s corner ball cross to the back post that evaded all attempts to clear and found the lurking run of towering defender Aaron Hayden at the back post, who prodded the ball home to give his side the advantage.
One to the good in terms of the scoreline, the Cumbrians would find themselves one to the good in personnel as well, with Scunthorpe skipper Andrew Boyce dismissed before the break for a foul on Carlisle forward Georgie Kelly. Despite already being on a yellow, referee Greg Rollason deemed the tackle dangerous enough to award a straight red card.
From the resultant free kick, the visitors would go outrageously close to doubling their advantage when Wearne met a clipped cross to the back post and managed to turn his header goalwards, only to see it crash back off the post, back along the goal line and somehow drop behind for a goal kick.
This would bring a disappointing first period to an end, with Scunthorpe presented with a mountain to climb in the second half, especially with the delaying tactics being deployed by Mark Hughes’s Carlisle side.
From the moment the game restarted, it was all hands to the offensive pump for the Iron, as despite being down to ten men, they would flood forward in large numbers looking for the equaliser they desperately desired.
After an intense opening 15 minutes, Scunthorpe would create the half’s first major chance when Westbrooke picked up the ball and offloaded it to Alfie Beestin. With space to drive into, Beestin would carry the ball into the final third before spotting the run of Ewing inside the penalty area. When receiving the ball at his feet, Ewing couldn’t set the ball up and only managed to sting his shot wide of the mark.
As the half progressed, you got the feeling that it just wasn’t to be for United as the visitors defended valiantly to keep hold of their lead. Corner after corner, attack after attack, Scunthorpe were battling to breach the Carlisle defence, but it felt as though every chance they created was being batted away by Carlisle’s defensive partnership of Hayden and Morgan Feeney.
With fifteen minutes to go, the referee would be given two further giant calls to make, with both of them taking place in the Cumbrians’ penalty area. Firstly, a goal-line scramble saw Joe Starbuck hooked away from the ball and thrown to the ground. Despite desperate appeals, Rollason would wave play on and would do the same less than a minute later when another cross into the area saw Whitehall seemingly rugby tackled by Hayden, but again nothing was awarded.
With less than ten minutes to go on the clock, the visitors would break forward in search of a goal to kill the game off and with Scunthorpe failing to clear the ball away, a queue of Carlisle players emerged to try their luck; however, the Iron defence stood firm, denying their opponents with a series of blocks to diffuse the threat.
The Iron were still creating good chances, and they would have one golden opportunity to draw level through substitute Declan Howe. Mere minutes after coming on, Howe would hold his run at the back post to latch onto a deep cross to the back stick in open play. Beating his marker to the ball, Howe would nod the ball towards the target and see it cannon back off the post in agonising fashion.
With the game in its dying embers, United’s race was run, with tired legs on show and a late flurry of corners dealt with again by the Blues’ defence, Scunthorpe would inevitably be condemned to their first defeat of the season despite a hard-fought performance that could’ve easily resulted in at least a point on another day.
IRON: Watson, Evans, Boyce, Beestin, Roberts, Sellars-Fleming (Whitehall, 45), Ewing, Starbuck, Dawson (Belehouan, 42), Westbrooke (Howe, 76), Denton.
IRON SUBS: Horton, Ubaezuonu, Scales, Chadwick
ATTENDANCE: 5,472 (691 away)
REFEREE: Greg Rollason
