Scunthorpe United v Huddersfield

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Football League One

Scunthorpe United :
Murphy, Byrne, Foster, Butler, Williams, Taylor (Sparrow 57), Goodwin (Baraclough 76), MacKenzie (Hinds 88), Hurst, Beckford, Sharp
Subs not used:
Lillis, Quinn

Huddersfield :
Glennon, Collins, Sinclair, Mirfin, Skarz, Hudson, Worthington, Ahmed, Booth, McAliskey (Racchi 73), Beckett
Subs not used:
Eastwood, McIntosh, Berrett, Hand

SULSESC REPORT

by Andy Skeels at Glanford Park

AS I sit down to write the match report for this game, I'm pondering just how many have been written for Iron Filings over the years.

If the London branch was formed in 1987, we've just completed our 20th season. That's 46 league games every year, plus a handful of cup matches, so, roughly speaking, we're probably looking at 50 a season, over 20 years... that's approximately 1,000 match reports that have appeared in IF. Blimey!

And after all that time, and God knows how many hours spent by God knows how many different people on writing Iron Filings match reports, we finally come to this one. The match report for the day we got promoted to the Championship (nŽe Division Two).

I'm not sure I know what to write, to be honest. How can you describe a day you never thought you'd see?

In all my years of trawling around the lower reaches of the Football League with the Iron, I never really thought I'd see us reach the second tier.

The last time Scunthorpe played at that level was a bit before my time. I was born in September, '63; United were relegated from the old Division Two at the end of the 1963-64 season.

My dad took me to the Old Show Ground for the first time in 1969 and since then, of course, it's been virtually nothing but basement division misery with the odd promotion thrown in every decade or so just to break up the monotony and give us all (usually false) hope.

Over the years, we've joked about the prospect of being promoted to the Second Division, without ever really believing it to be a feasible proposition for a club of the Iron's standing. As Captain Mainwaring would have said: "I think you're entering the realms of fantasy, Pike."

And yet now the realms of fantasy have come true. You almost had to pinch yourself to believe it. Scunthorpe United back in the Second Division after 43 years...who would have thought it?

With four games left in which to secure the one win we needed to mathematically clinch promotion, there wasn't even any reason to feel nervous going into this game against a mid-table Huddersfield side with nothing left to play for.

In the past, our promotions have usually been taut, anxious, tense, all-or-nothing last day affairs, a la Chester 1983 or the play-off final against Orient in 1999. Not this time. We were all but home and hosed even with 12 points still to play for. Surely even United couldn't blow it from this position.

A bumper SULSESC turn-out in the Honest Lawyer savoured the pre-game moment with a few pints and then it was down the hill to GP for a game we'll all remember forever.

Well, actually, I can recall very little about the game itself, to be honest! Average, mediocre and mundane are the words that spring to mind to describe a goalless first-half.

But it all came to life in the second period. After Sharp had had a goal ruled out for offside, the moment everyone had been waiting for finally arrived in the 68th minute. Huddersfield 'keeper Matt Glennon could do no more than parry a curling shot from Kevin Hurst and the rebound fell perfectly for the predatory Sharp to open the scoring.

Fifteen minutes later, and it was all over - albeit from a ridiculous penalty decision. The Huddersfield left-back blocked a Sharp cross with his hands but seeing as he was a good two yards outside the penalty area, the last thing anyone expected to see was referee Ilderton pointing to the spot.

But that's exactly what happened - they say things go your way when you're top, don't they! - and Sharp put the issue beyond doubt to move within one goal of equalling Barrie Thomas' club record of 31 in a season.

The celebrations at the end were something to savour and it was just a pity most of us were heading back south again straight after the game, rather than staying in Scunny for party time in the evening. At least two carloads of us managed to fit in a couple of pints just off the A1 in the vicinity of Peterborough - and yours truly and Messrs. Vaughan and Gray also squeezed a couple in at the Hamilton Hall on Liverpool Street station when we finally got back to London. We were even congratulated by a couple of stray Forest fans on their way home from Brentford!

I wonder who'll have the honour of writing the match report on the day we get promoted to the Premiership...