Biggest win of the season so far

Jimmy Ryan fires in the Iron’s first

I am really busy at work this week hence the late post on last Saturday’s game but as the saying goes – “Better late than never!”.
So last Saturday provided us with arguably the biggest game of the season so far against Colchester United. Colchester sat one place and one point above the Iron, but more importantly that one place was OUT of the relegation zone. I sat there thinking to myself in the hours leading up to kick off that at 5 O’clock Saturday evening we could for the first time since late September find ourselves out of the relegation zone. This was massive. What that one place could do to the Iron player’s mentalities was priceless.

We went into the game on the back of 2 draws with Oldham and Shrewsbury respectively. You could argue that these were 2 games that the Iron should have won comfortably based on the way the matches went, but it was not to be and at least we got out of the games without a loss, it was a start.
I couldn’t afford to go to the game with Christmas just gone so I resigned myself to the sofa and watched Gillette soccer Saturday and tuned into the live twitter updates.
Our first goal came not long before the break when the Home side looked more likely to score, and blimey how important it was to get that first goal. The goal came in the shape of a Jimmy Ryan scorcher! His first goal of the season will hopefully set him alight and I almost expect him to bag again in the coming weeks!
So half time came with the Iron sitting nicely on a 1-0 lead but all Iron fans knew another goal was needed before we started to get excited. Saying that not many of us would have expected that second goal to come so quickly as almost straight from the kick off in the 2nd half a headed flick from new signing Akpo Sodje sent Hawley through on goal who finished crisply. 2-0 Let’s go f’fing mental! Wait, this is Scunthorpe United and it’s only 2 weeks since we last threw away a 2 goal lead so let’s calm down…
Scunthorpe fans detest when we get ourselves a good lead and then sit on it so it was encouraging to see us going close on 2 further occasions via a Callum Kennedy free kick which hit the post and another Karl Hawley shot which also hit the post. So for once we don’t sit on a lead and guess what happens? Yep against the run of play Colchester pull one back through ex-Iron loanee Freddy Sears, and with 30 minutes of normal time remaining suddenly an all so familiar sight looked inevitable.
To my surprise we held on for a priceless 2-1 victory despite an onslaught of Colchester pressure to find that equaliser.

So we are now out of the relegation zone! This feels amazing! Below is the table to savour because only God knows how long we will remain out of that dredded drop zone:

This ties me into a look at this weekend’s game against Portsmouth who even before the kick off are there for the taking.
Pompey’s off field problems have been highlighted all the way through the current campaign but they seem to be at the worst possible state at this moment in time. It hurts me to say this because the fans of that club really are suffering but there really is no better time to play them. They have about 6 or 7 players in there squad who are actually first team players, the rest of the team on Saturday will be made up of youth players. If we can’t beat a team in this mess then we don’t deserve to stay up!
A further 3 points and a loss for the teams around us would be priceless, but more than anything we need to keep the momentum going the way it is at the moment.

Scunthorpe United have sent this message to fans in light of the poor weather: “United are seeking volunteers to help clear the Glanford Park pitch ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Portsmouth.”
“There are presently pitch covers beneath the snow, protecting the playing surface, but the club are asking supporters to come to the stadium at 9.00am on Friday morning to help clear all the snowfall ahead of the important League One match.”

If you have some spare time on Friday morning I urge you to get down to Glanford park and help to try and get this game on! In return SUFC are awarding fans that do help with a free ticket for the game.

As always UP THE IRON!!