Scunthorpe United v Charlton

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Football League Championship

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Byrne, Crosby, Butler (sent off 74), Williams, Cork, Goodwin, McCann, Hurst (Paterson 52), Horsfield (Morris 81), Hayes (Hobbs 75)
Subs not used:
Lillis, May

Charlton :
Weaver, Moutaouakil (McLeod 87), Bougherra, McCarthy, Youga, Sam (Thomas 46), Zhi, Holland, Ambrose, Gray, Varney (Iwelumo 62)
Subs not used:
Randolph, Semedo

SULSESC REPORT

by Steve Sumner at Glanford Park

THE day started at King’s Cross, meeting up with Andy Skeels, Matt Gray and two of Matt’s work colleagues – Pete, a dedicated Charlton fan (who missed the corresponding fixture at the Valley last August) and Martin (an armchair West Ham fan).

It was a bit worrying having Pete along, considering Scunny’s current form – a loss today and we’d have to suffer the whole journey back…unless we abandoned Pete in Donny station.

Unlike the trip a fortnight before, we were not held up en-route to Donny and decided we did not have sufficient time for a “quick one” in the Leopard.

Arrival at Scunny saw the usual trip to the Lawyer. Because we were on the 19.15 back to Donny that evening, Andy and Matt thought it would be a good day to attempt to drink the eight beers on tap (from right to left, of course!). As I’d left a car at Petts Wood station, I decided it was a good day to stick to shandies and suffer the typical banter.

Four beers (three shandies) and steak pie later, it was time to head to the ground. Matt had jacked up a lift to the ground for the TFL boys with Neil Wright, Andy had arranged for Jon Dunn to chauffeur us.

The game saw the return of Kelly Youga to Glanford Park. Kelly seemed to forget he was back at Charlton as he took an early throw-in straight to Jim Goodwin. Jack Cork played right-midfield for Scunny, Goodwin and Grant McCann being paired in the centre, and the game had several good duels between Youga and Cork.

Martin Paterson started on the bench as Nigel Adkins preferred to pair Paul Hayes up front with on-loan debutant Geoff Horsfield.

The first-half had little to offer, chance-wise, which raised the hopes of the Scunny crowd. The most pleasing aspect from the supporters’ point of view was the way Horsfield gave the Charlton defenders so many problems by his presence and constant hassling.

Early in the second-half, Paterson replaced Kevan Hurst, who had started the game on the left, Hayes moved to left midfield and Paterson played up front alongside Horsfield. Hayes, clearly now playing for a starting position, put in a good performance on the left, but it was Paterson who got the goal, slotting the ball past Nicky Weaver in the Charlton goal after Yassin Moutaouakil mis-placed a clearance straight to the young Northern Irishman.

Charlton had a number of chances to draw level (and lead) but spurned them all, this despite Andy Butler being sent off following a second yellow card. Butler was perhaps unfortunate as the first card appeared to have been given for a clean tackle.

So we returned to the Lawyer in celebratory mode, but I still stuck to the shandies as Messrs. Gray and Skeels continued their charge along the bar whilst watching England capitulate against Wales in the Six Nations rugby tournament.

The return journey was pretty uneventful. ‘Charlton’ Peter, having nothing to gloat about, slept most of the way. And so a rare event for me to report on - a Scunny win. There is still hope of staying up, although I don’t think many other sides would be so wasteful in front of goal as Charlton were.