Scunny make lemons out of the Yellows

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      Scunthorpe                           Wednesday

Having achieved three successive wins for the first time in nearly three years, Wednesday were a couple more good results away from converting even the most pessimistic Wednesdayite into an devoted disciple of Mr Irvine. Unfortunately the new gaffer’s 100% record came crashing to an unceremonious halt on a showery night in Lincolnshire.
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Scunthorpe was my second new ground in eight days having lost my Bloomfield Road virginity the previous Tuesday. The journey couldn’t have been more straightforward and even the rush hour traffic didn’t prolong it beyond an hour. Dessie had not previously visited Glanford Park either but even Beastie couldn’t miss this place as the enormous floodlights could be seen a good two miles before reaching Scunthorpe.

The ground itself is a couple of miles outside the town centre on a retail park but unlike most of the nauseating new grounds this place exuded character if not world class facilities. Glanford Park was opened in 1988; the first time a football club had moved to a new purpose-built ground in over 30 years. Despite being the forerunner for the plastic bowls which defile our great land this place was more reminiscent of Saltergate than the Ricoh Arena.

We were afforded the opportunity to circumnavigate the ground in search of my ticket, which had gone missing in the post and, I was assured, would be waiting for me when I got to the Scunthorpe ticket office. Alas the Wednesday supporters’ coach hadn’t arrived yet so neither had my ticket! The only appropriate course of action was of course to head to the pub to meet up with the usual away day suspects.

‘The Berkeley Hotel’ looked almost condemned on the approach with its abundance of scaffolding and its empty car park; an impressively big car park nonetheless. On entering the place it presented itself as a relic from a bygone era with its grandiose decor and high roof. The gents even had a sign saying ‘gents cloakroom’. The prices were even a blast from the past with pints on offer for under £1.40...it’s easy to see why Tommo chose to stay the night! After a quick couple I made for the ground early where fortunately my ticket was waiting for me.
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Again for a ‘new’ ground the place retained all the charm of an old-style ground as you came out at the front of the stand once passing through the turnstiles. Wednesdayites were located in the stand behind the goal and there was a pocket of fans in the stand to our right which reminded me of Layer Road. The confusing lettering of the rows and the seemingly sporadic numbering of the seats was causing havoc and for most of the first half my row had about four more people than there should have been.
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The players came out to a big roar from the expectant visitors and cries of ‘YELLOWS’; we were up for this but it soon seemed that the players weren’t.

We were behind inside two minutes; the calmness that typified our previous two away wins had disappeared completely and a poor pass by Lewis Buxton was seized upon by McCann before it got anywhere near O’Connor. He played a delightful through ball to Hooper which caught the defence completely off guard and Hooper slotted it coolly past Granty. Not the start we were after.

Wednesday settled down and got hold of the ball but our passing had completely deserted us and as has happened all too often this season we resorted to aimless hoofball. Chances were few and far between for Wednesday with a tame volley from Clarke the only chance I can remember while Scunthorpe came close to doubling the lead as Grant tipped over a McCann effort.

The most frustrating thing was the amount of set pieces we just wasted. Having scored most of our goals in recent games from set pieces it was disappointing to see so many poor balls into the box and even more disappointing to see free-kicks taken quickly which came to nothing. Don’t even get me started on our throw-ins. It was a poor performance and although Scunthorpe didn’t look spectacular they wanted it more and deserved their lead.
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The second half was better and Wednesday bossed possession for long spells but worryingly we looked about as threatening as a seedless grape. Our build-up play was slow and it took us forever to get the ball in the box. When we did it either went straight to the ‘keeper or there was nobody in the box attacking the ball. Our best chance probably came through Tommy Spurr who was urged to shoot as Wednesday attacked ‘our end’ but saw his shot deflect wide. Mickey Gray then had a chance when Tudgay nodded the ball forward but it was on his right foot and he fired wide of the post.

Varney replaced Soares and his shot was cruelly deflected wide by the feet of Tudgay. Scunthorpe then should have sealed the win when Spurr was left for dead on his wing and Thompson fired just wide after being put through by Hayes. Wednesday were still chucking balls forward with Beevers in their box more than ours at times but Scunny did wrap up the points with ten minutes left. Buxton blocked a McCann shot but the ball fell back to the Scunny midfielder and he fired home into the roof of the night. Despite being silent all night the home fans were now in raptures as they knew the win was theirs.
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It was a disappointed night for the Owls and of course Alan Irvine’s first defeat. His job now will be to pick the pieces out of that and make sure the players are ready for another vital home game against Plymouth on Saturday.

There were a lot of poor performances out there last night. Buxton was error-prone, Beevers and Purse looked shaky again, Gray looked knackered and Clarke didn’t chase anywhere near the amount of lost causes he did at the weekend.

A minor blip or the start of another run of rotten results? We shall see...

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