Report: Bottesford Town 1-6 Iron

Scunthorpe defeated Bottesford Town 6-1 courtesy of a dominant performance and a show of character after falling behind in the first-half.

The Iron were set to end their pre-season tour of local rivals with a Tuesday night trip to Bottesford Town who shared a positive start to pre-season with Scunthorpe. So far Andy Butler’s Iron were on an unbeaten run of four fixtures going into the game with the Poachers, and were looking to keep that run going.

In regard to the Scunthorpe team news, Butler named a heavily changed starting side to the one that defeated Brigg on penalties the weekend prior to win the Julie Taylor Trophy. Most notably, Michael Kelly was named in the team for the first time this pre-season following his recovery from a recent injury. Also, between the sticks for the encounter was trialist shot stopper Kian Johnson who was given the chance to prove his worth. 

With United getting the game underway they were initially met with resistance from the Poachers who were refusing to let Scunthorpe perform their traditional style of play by having a flurry of early corners that failed to concern Johnson between the sticks.

From that moment on the quality in the sides began to show as the Iron started to trap their hosts within their own half, and limit them to long hopeful passes that proved to no avail. 

The first major chance for United was forged through a quickly taken corner from Callum Roberts. Roberts thought fast to slide a pinpoint pass through to the intelligent run of Kelly within the penalty area, and under heavy pressure the flying Scotsman sent his effort straight into palms of Jordan Quibell.

The Iron onslaught would continue long into the second period and an unlikely goal scorer was next to try make a breakthrough in the tie. It was right-back Ross Barrows who burst through the Bottesford defence after a near one-two with Danny Whitehall, but unfortunately Barrows could only power his effort straight at the onrushing goalkeeper who turned the ball behind. 

The Poachers needed to establish some dominance on the fixture and hence began to flood forward when on the breakaway. It was this style of play that allowed Luke Ayris to converge on a loose bouncing ball in behind. Johnson came stampeding from his goal to intercept the winger and magnificently outstretched to push Ayris’s effort away from goal.

With United still in free-flow and looking for the opener it was Roberts’ crafty corner that caught out the home side again. A floated cross toward the back post found the rising leap of centre-back Maxim Kouogun who nodded a delicate effort goalwards that stung the crossbar and left it reverberating. 

As the half began to draw to its close, Bottesford proceeded to make a good account of themselves and in doing so went on to take a surprise lead. It was Ayris causing the issues for the Iron defence as he beat Kelly to the ball on the right-flank, and after a smart shift in feet lashed a stunning strike past Johnson and into his near post to make it 1-0.

With the last action of the first-half, United needed an immediate response to going behind in the fixture and found it in the nick of time. The corners that had been threatening all game long for the Iron finally had the desired impact, Roberts’ delivery again connected with Kouogun’s head from no more than five yards out, and this time the Irishman made no mistake in dispatching his effort past the keeper, hence levelling the scores going into the break.

Minutes after the restart, where the Iron had made multiple alterations to their line-up, and shape their tally for the night was doubled courtesy of substitute Carlton Ubaezuonu who after initially failing to connect with Ross Barrows’ low driven cross managed to regain his footing, and smash the ball past Quibell, despite shooting on his weaker left foot. 

Despite possessing the lead now, the Iron couldn’t afford to let their guard down despite the dominance they had showed. Bottesford were still threatening, and when striker Lewis Smith was given space to drive an effort at goal from the edge of the area the hosts found themselves unlucky to not be on level terms, Smith’s strike was powerful and stung the crossbar off the fingertips of Johnson.

Goals were to follow from the remainder of the second half as United would again add to their lead through Ubaezuonu again. The Irishman would find himself in a carbon copy of the position his first goal was obtained from, and the end result would be the same as before as the striker leathered the ball past the outstretched goalkeeper off the post to make it 3-1.

Mere minutes after United’s third goal, it was time to update the scoreboard once more as liquid Scunthorpe football ensued. Ubaezuonu turned provider for the fourth as he slotted a composed pass into the feet Whitehall who was set free in behind the Bottesford defence. With time to compose himself, Whitehall played a well-timed pass to the substitute Max Brogan, who neatly tucked the ball past the keeper.

As the game reached its closing stages, the Iron were fully in cruise control and, as the substitutes continued to be introduced to the action, the fresh legs of Scunthorpe proved too much for the Poachers as Aaron Braithwaite collected possession and delivered a sublime dipping strike from 25 yards that curved fantastically past Quibell and into the roof of the net. 

With referee Louis Stamp seconds away from condemning Bottesford to defeat, substitute Sam Fishburn made the most of his chance to rub insult to the Poachers injuries by tapping the ball into an open goal after a whipped cross from Ubaezuonu, who unlucky to not have obtained his hat-trick on the night. 

This was to be the end of the encounter with now some entertaining fixtures ahead including an encounter with National League side FC Halifax Town on Saturday which is prospected to be a difficult test for the so far undefeated Iron. 

IRON XI: Johnson, Nicholson (Boyce , 45), Kelly (Law, 45), Kouogun (Nicholson, 75), Evans, Clunan (Shrimpton, 52) Beestin (Brogan, 59), Whitehall (Fishburn, 75), Roberts (Scales, 59), Rowley (Ubaezuonu, 45), Barrows (Braithwaite, 59)