Following a disappointing midweek defeat at the hands of Sutton United, Scunthorpe would come into their annual Community Day fixture with a point to prove upon the arrival of their inform opponents, Altrincham, who were looking to climb further from the drop zone with a victory at the Attis Arena.
There would be a medley of changes for the Iron as, firstly, defender Tyler Denton came back into the starting XI following an injection to replace Scotsman Connor Smith. Elsewhere, Kyle Hurst and Leo Farrell were both inducted into the line-up to replace Oli Ewing, who dropped to the bench and wide-man Cal Roberts, who missed out following an injection.
With proceedings underway, United would make a positive start with a flurry of early attacks and corners, looking to establish themselves on their opponents with the hope of an early goal.
The first major chance of the game would come in the 10th minute when the Iron looked set to break the deadlock. After some neat interplay to release Hurst down the right-hand side, the Doncaster Rovers loanee would tee the ball up to the back post for Denton to pull back across the box for the unmarked run of Danny Whitehall, allowing the forward to stroke the ball towards the target on his weaker left foot, although the effort just didn’t have the power to beat defender Josh Grant on the line to deny the opener.
Less than 10 minutes later, the hosts would be at it again, teasing towards a goal when Joe Rowley picked up possession 20 yards from goal before a driving run towards the goal opened the space for him to release a curled effort towards the target, beating Luke Hutchinson’s attempted dive and seeming destined to find the bottom corner, only for the effort to crash off the outside of the post.
Despite a promising start to the fixture, United would somehow find themselves behind with the visitors’ first attack of the evening. Winning a second ball high up the pitch to kickstart their attack, as Jimmy Knowles skipped down the left-hand side at pace, he would slide the ball across the penalty area into the path of Lucas Weaver, allowing the forward to slot the ball beneath Louis Jones to open the scoring.
With just over five minutes of the first period remaining after the opening goal, Scunthorpe would very quickly run out of time to change their fortunes before the break, requiring an improved second-half performance if they were to make the desired comeback.
Following the restart, it would be the visitors who picked up where they left off in the first period, attacking with the intent of getting a second goal. Without Jones between the Scunthorpe sticks, it could’ve been a bad state of affairs for United as the goalkeeper was called into action on several occasions to get down low and keep the ball out of the net.
With 63 minutes played, the Iron would find the lifeline they desperately needed. After a long, sustained attack that had all arrows pointing towards a dead end, possession would fall into the path of Joe Starbuck on the edge of the area, providing the wing-back with the space and time to lash the ball towards the bottom corner, beyond the fingertips of Hutchinson for his first professional goal.
At this stage of the game and on level terms once more, Andy Butler’s boys would push towards the winner, and, surprisingly, Starbuck now had an eye for goal as he tried his luck from the edge of the area. Running onto a cleared corner ball, the defender would unleash a sensational first-time volley that dipped massively on its way to the target, narrowly evading the far post as it soared just wide via the aid of a deflection.
As a number of crosses into the area were the closest that Scunthorpe would come to the winner, there was a sense that it would be all she wrote at a 1-1 scoreline.
However, that wasn’t the case, as in a season where the Iron had been punished so many times in additional time, it would be their turn to have their flowers in the added time as Alfie Beestin stepped up to be a hero for his side. Collecting possession 25 yards from goal, the Beast was being closely marked as he drove towards the area, brushing off his opponent and smashing the ball towards goal, with the effort taking a deflection before flying beyond Hutchinson, kickstarting unreal scenes in the DRE.
Shortly after the game would be brought it’s close with United picking up a valuable three points, a well-earned victory that saw them climb a place in the league standings and set themselves up for a glorious week of travelling action with Truro City and Braintree Town to play.
IRON: Jones, Horton, Boyce, Whitehall (Beestin, 63), Rowley, Tahir (Barrows, 85), Starbuck, Hurst (Jones, 45), Westbrooke, Farrell (Smith, 88), Denton (Ewing, 63).
IRON SUBS: Mahady, Belehouan.
ATTENDANCE: 5,042 (129 away)
REFEREE: Simon Mather
