Scunthorpe United vs. Forest preview..
Forest go into this game at Glanford Park very much the underdog, in my opinion. Scunny are on a run of seven consecutive wins which has unsurprisingly seen them cement themselves to the top of the table, and look pretty much unassailable in their quest for the title - they’re unbeaten in fourteen, having won ten of them - whereas well, the least said about our recent run of form the better! Of course, all good runs must end - so there is always a glimmer of hope.
We have Jack Lester available again - and after the passionless display against Doncaster a couple of days ago, I would certainly have him straight back in the team, David Prutton however remains an injury doubt with a thigh problem. Hopefully Jack can inject some enthusiasm, trickery and creativity into the side and continue the decent run of performances he had mustered before yet another suspension took him out of the first team. Sammy Clingan obviously won’t feature given his broken ankle!
Scunny could welcome back former Sadpie Ian Baraclough who hasn’t played since January, but it’s unlikely they’ll be too concerned about changing things around given their recent run of form. As ever with the Iron, the man to watch is likely to be Billy Sharp - now officially League One Player of the Year, he’s banged in 24 goals this season, and always seems to find the net against us too. That’s not to say the rest of the Scunny team aren’t to be sniffed at. Playing infront of the biggest ever crowd at Glanford Park, they’ll all be very fired up for the game.
For Forest, this is an interesting game for them, because it’s the first time I think we’ve overtly been underdogs. How the players respond to this is interesting, a defeat would perhaps have been acceptable had we not capitulated so pathetically against Doncaster - but now suddenly getting a result, and indeed, a win looks pretty essential to our chances of automatic promotion, yet nobody expects them to achieve it. With Bristol winning the first of their games in hand over us, we’re looking worryingly destined for a playoff finish.
Scunthorpes run of excellent form is even more impressive when you consider they lost former-Red Brian Laws to Sheffield Wednesday, and influential striker Andrew Keogh in the transfer window - Nigel Adkins has done a brilliant job initially as a caretaker manager, and now full time in the role - having formerly been the club physio under Brian Laws. We’ve yet to beat them in a league game - ever. I can’t see that changing any time soon, sadly - as next season I have very real fears we’ll be in different leagues. We’ve played them three times in the league, and lost three.
Of course, few of us will forget the 4-0 humbling we endured at the City Ground in October - indeed, many neutrals might also remember it as the Sky cameras were recording. Billy Sharp was inspiring as he assisted two goals, before inevitably scoring the final goal in the dying moments. He made his debut for Scunthorpe last season, against us, at the City Ground, and scored the winning goal - the man is a complete menace! Maybe we should see if Bennett can “do a McGammon” on him early in the game (joke!).
Alas, I can only foresee defeat in this fixture - Scunthorpe are rampant and high on confidence, they work hard, close down and play neat passing football backed up with deadly finishing. I’ve all but lost faith in our side’s ability to play under pressure - and now we really need to rack up the points I think the pressure coupled with the quality of the opponents will prove too much and result in a comfortable win for Scunthorpe to further consolidate their position at the top. With Bristol playing at home to Brentford, and Yeovil playing Cheltenham away, there’s a very realistic possibility we’ll be down to fourth place by saturday night.
8 March, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I hate to be the one to say this, but we are going to win. Everything points to a Forest win. Their run will end, we’ll react to the Donny defeat and their early thrashing of us. The pressure is now off us, thanks to Bristol, believe it or not, as no-one expects us to achieve anything other than the play-offs now.
8 March, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I have no faith left in Forest - I can not even remember the last time the players turned on a positive performance in the face of pressure and adversity. Either they are mentally weak as professional footballers or they lack the skill to breakdown organised teams that set out to defend against us - or both!! I can only hope they prove me wrong, but they won’t.
8 March, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Tell you what though, if we want the players to give it a good go, then our travelling support will need to give it a good go as well. I mean, it is a big game, so we should just enjoy the atmosphere (radio fans) and make some noise (travelling fans).
I appreciate that that sentiment means FA if we are 3 down after 10 minutes, but until then …
8 March, 2007 at 5:09 pm
The fans are always tremendous. I wish the players could match the enthusiasm. Miracles do happen in football!!!!
8 March, 2007 at 5:49 pm
“The fans are always tremendous.” - Aye, didn’t mean to knock our fans. I just had a pang of anticipation, baring play off games, this could well be our biggest game of the season could it not?
8 March, 2007 at 10:21 pm
No. This is not our biggest game of the season - the game in Brizzle is. And then the playoff semi-finals. We will be in the playoffs, because the other teams in this league are crapper than we are, and we won’t be overtaken by 4 teams because there aren’t 4 teams outside of Brizzle and Scunny who are capable of going on a run. We won’t win the playoffs, of course, because as has already been noted, we can’t face up to the big games anymore. It always used to be that we played well against the big teams and crap against the crap ones, but now we do not seem capable of raising our game. We were not on the park on Stamford Bridge, and we were not on the park on Tuesday, either - the first was a jolly, and should have been a chance for a gutsy defeat, the second was a must-win game that just had nothing at all. 2-0 to Scunthorpe, I’m afraid, at a canter.
9 March, 2007 at 10:56 am
“No. This is not our biggest game of the season - the game in Brizzle is.” - Maybe we should all just go and support Notts against Mansfield :/
I’m going to have to buy a bucket of sand if its the playoffs to hide my head in, the price of cocking them up is so high its scary. If we’re that nervous about them, imagine how the players feel.
9 March, 2007 at 12:40 pm
hmm, maybe the players will get nervous if we’re in the play-offs. But then if they fail will the same players still be here next season?? one or two probably, but they all have agents and big ideas, so i doubt if they really do care that much. Certainly most of the performances this year would lead you to believe that certain players are already marking time.
Still cant believe that a club of our stature (and with a couple of international players, plus 6 who could walk into any championship side) are rated as underdogs against scunthorpe. Fair play to scunny and all 4000 of their fans, but it just isnt right.
9 March, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Looks like we are wearing the cursed yellow kit tomorrow. Have we ever won in that kit? I’m not sure that we have.
Doncaster do the double over us, third rate players turn us down and we go to Scunthorpe as underdogs, sigh!
On a brighter note, there is a story on 442 magazine about a man who has a mug for every 92 league clubs. Every week he rearranges the mugs to reflect current league positions. He is my new hero!
9 March, 2007 at 9:05 pm
THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE SEASON IS ALWAYS OUR NEXT ONE.