REPORT: Iron 4-1 Hartlepool United

Following a disappointing performance and defeat at Hornchurch last time out, Scunthorpe would come into an almost must-win encounter against managerless Hartlepool United, looking for their second home victory of the season. But the Pools came into the game in the midst of a poor run of form of their own, which had seen the resignation of former boss Lee Clark last weekend.

A medley of changes for the Iron this afternoon as first-team manager Andy Butler looks to get his side back to winning ways. With Ross Barrows elected to start in the centre of defence ahead of captain Will Evans, there would be debuts handed to a pair of new additions as midfielder Dan Batty and Forward James Norwood were unveiled to the Scunthorpe faithful. Elsewhere, midfielder Joe Rowley returned to the centre of the park, as well as the recently recovered wide man Pat Jones.

When proceedings were set underway at the Attis Arena, the Iron would make an impressive start to the encounter, battling hard in the early exchanges and pressing well to prevent their opponents from having any breathing room.

With ten minutes played, the first opportunity of the game would come for the Iron, who, after a period of sustained attack, worked the ball inwards from the right-flank with Pat Jones bursting to the by-line, driving the ball into the area for the lurking run of Norwood in the area, who failed to establish a clean connection with the cross, flicking the ball into the grateful grasp of goalkeeper Nathan Fisher.

The game’s next attack would be a warning sign for United as a single ball over the top found the run of Will Harris in behind the defensive line, setting the former Scunthorpe loanee up to either shoot or square the ball to the bombarding Neo Eccleston, opting to do the latter as Eccleston was granted what appeared to be an open net to tap into, but somehow Maison Campbell was there to deny, springing across his line to push the shot clear.

In the minutes that followed, Hartlepool would take the advantage as Harris made no mistake on this occasion, breaking the offside trap and advancing up to the edge of the area before slotting the ball beneath to advancing Campbell to make it 1-0.

Despite falling behind, it would take the Iron mere minutes to draw level as, on the half-hour mark, a neat one-two allowed for Jones to steer into the penalty area, breaking past the last Hartlepool defender before looking up and driving the ball across goal and into the bottom corner, beating the covering defender’s attempt for the Welshman’s first of the season.

Following an injury to Tyler Denton that saw play halted for a substantial amount of time, Scunthorpe would use the nine minutes of additional time to strike a second, and who else would it be but Norwood to mark his debut in style, as the veteran forward latched onto a whipped delivery from Jacob Butterfield, powering his unmarked header beyond the reach of Fisher and into the top corner.

This would bring the first-half’s action to an end with United showing signs of vast improvement, looking to see out a much-needed three points with another 45 minutes of action still to play. When play resumed, Scunthorpe would make their dream start to the second period when a counterattack from one end to another saw Scunthorpe extend their advantage.

When a deep free kick into the Iron penalty area was swept away down the line by Batty, Pat Jones was able to carry the ball into the Pools half, lifting his head just in time to see the gut-busting run of James Norwood through the middle of the park, feeding the forward down the flank who played an instinctive pass across the penalty area and into the path of Kyle Hurst at the back post, who was left all alone to dispatch the ball beneath Fisher to make it 3-1.

With 56 minutes on the clock at the Attis Arena, United were continuing to threaten the Hartlepool defence and very nearly added another to their tally in extraordinary fashion when Ross Barrows cut out a long ball over the top of the Scunthorpe defence, bringing the ball down on the half-way line and spotting the goalkeeper off his line, attempting to lob Fisher with a fantastic attempt that dipped narrowly over the bar with the goalkeeper scrambling.

As another ten minutes passed, United would get the fourth goal they desired through substitute Hugh Parker. After a lovely, clipped ball into the box found the run of Parker at the back post, the Irish forward managed to knock the ball back across goal, evading all attempts to clear from the Hartlepool defence and diverting his header into the far corner for his first league goal in Claret and Blue.

As the encounter began to reach its conclusion with Pools resigned to defeat with the scoreline at 4-1, Adam Clayton and Gary Liddle’s side would have one last roll of the dice to get back into the fixture when Scunthorpe failed to clear their lines on the edge of the area, presenting the chance for Terry Bondo to unleash an effort towards goal that was remarkably dealt with by Campbell, who acrobatically sprang into action to push the ball clear.

With that, the fixture would come to its end with United convincing 4-1 victors, a win that lifted them out of the relegation zone and is sure to give Butler’s boys some much-needed confidence going into Tuesday night’s encounter with Barrow AFC.

IRON: Campbell, Norwood (Parker, 63), Rowley, P. Jones (Sellars-Fleming, 63), Ashbee, Batty (Brennan, 74), Hurst, Starbuck, Butterfield (Bailey, 63), Denton (Ogle, 44), Barrows

IRON SUBS: L. Jones, Evans