Scunthorpe United Preview
MATCHPREVIEW
Friday 15th February 2008
Stoke City vs Scunthorpe
Coca-Cola Championship
Britannia Stadium
Kick Off 7:45pm
STOKECITY
The Potters have continued their promotion push from last season by once again up there challenging with the top sides in the division.
Manager Tony Pulis has once again moulded a strong powerful side, full of attacking flair and substance.
Pulis worked hard in the summer and the early part of the season to add to the squad through the transfer market having lost the spine of the team from the previous season.
Pulis is a highly experienced manager at this level having previously managed Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth and Plymouth.
A lot of new faces arrived at The Brit, many on loan initially. Although the loan deals of Danny Pugh, Leon Cort and Manchester United youngster Ryan Shawcross have all recently been turned into permanent transfers, with all the players signing long term deals with City.
Glenn Whelan arrived from Sheffield Wednesday along with Paul Gallagher (loan) from Blackburn on transfer deadline day.
City bounced back from defeat at Charlton two weeks ago, with superb victories over Cardiff City (2-1) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-2) and Southampton on Tuesday (3-2)
SCUNTHORPEUNITED
Scunthorpe's return to The Championship has been the up hill struggle that many pundits predicted. Their limited resources meant it was always going to be tough season battling against the bigger clubs with bigger budgets.
Nigel Adkins's men have battled hard this season and have won many admirers with their well constructed football and excellent work rate. Despite losing their two top goal scorers from last season with Andy Keogh's departure to Wolves and Billy Sharp's return to Sheffield United, Scunthorpe have still managed to play an attacking, free flowing brand of football which has delighted many fans in The Championship this season.
Martin Paterson, the former Stoke City Academy graduate, was signed in the summer for a fee eventually settled by a tribunal. Paterson has blasted in 12 goals already for The Irons this season, as well as making his full international debut for Northern Ireland.
Kevan Hurst, Paul Hayes, Jonathan Forte and Izzy Ireikpen also joined in the summer, but establishing themselves at this level has proved difficult for Adkins's men as they currently find themselves stuck in the relegation zone battling to keep themselves afloat.
Scunthorpe had a poor start to 2008, picking up just the one point in January. However this has been followed up with memorable victory at Glanford Park over City's fellow promotion rivals Charlton Athletic, beating Alan Pardew's team with a goal from Martin Patterson and they were even able to hang on when reduced to ten men with twenty minutes remaining. This was followed with a creditable draw at Bramell Lane against Sheffield United. On Tuesday night they faced promotion contenders Bristol City at Glanford Park, Scunthorpe were unfortunate to lose to Gary Johnson's men as they sank to the bottom of the table.
The Iron now have it all to play for as they battle for survival at the level they fought so hard to reach; those who have seen Adkins's side this season certainly know they have the quality in their side to achieve their goal
PREMATCHQUOTES
Mark O'Connor (1st Team Coach)
On The League: "We are looking to win the league.
"That's not being cocky, you just have to aim for the top.
"At the start of the season you should aim to finish top of the league, if you can't achieve that then you should aim to finish second.
"There's 14 games to go and hopefully we will prove we are worthy of playing in the Premier League.
"People will talk about the pressure, but we have players who have already won promotion, players who have played in the Premier League and players who have played international football.
"It's a good dressing room and there should not be fear, there should be excitement.
"Everybody is thinking positively and we do have a great opportunity, but we mustn't forget we haven't won any of those 14 games left."
Thoughts On Scunthorpe: "We went to Scunthorpe earlier this season, and I have to say that was one game where we had a little bit of luck.
"I think every other point we have earned this season, so we know tonight isn't going to be just a case of us turning up and getting the win.
"We have seen them play a few times, and they have some good players. They are desperate for the points and they will come here and give us a game."
Nigel Adkins
On Stoke: "They are a team who are flying high with real aspirations this season of promotion to the Premiership. But we remember the home game we played against them way back in November when we played them off the park.
"We played some great football but unfortunately Cliff Byrne broke his leg. The result did not go are way after we lost two late goals. We know that Stoke are very dangerous and now even their manager Tony Pulis now thinks they have every chance of getting promotion.
"They are a very big side who score a lot of goals form set - pieces. But they can also play good football and have a good pitch at the Britannia to play on.
"First and foremost, we have got to try and match the physical presence that they can offer. Then, we have got to get the ball down and play ourselves."
SCUNTHORPEIN
Kevin Horlock, Doncaster Utd (Free)
Grant McCann, Barnsley (Free)
Ben May, Milwall (Free)
Martin Paterson, Stoke City (£275,000)
Jack Cork, Chelsea (Loan)
Jack Hobbs, Liverpool (Loan)
Tomi Ameobi, Leeds (Loan)
Mamadou Seck, Sheff Utd (Loan)
Geoff Horsefield, Sheff Utd (Loan)
SCUNTHORPEOUT
Steve Torpey, Lincoln (Free)
Daniel McBreen, St Johnston (Free)
Dave Mulligan, Port Vale (Free)
Cleveland Taylor, Carlisle (£50,000)
HEAD2HEAD
League - Played 13, Won 6, Drawn 5, Lost 2
League Cup - Played 3, Won 1, Drawn 2, Lost 0
MATCHOFFICIALS
Referee - G. Laws
Assistants - S. Castle and J. Collin
Fourth Official - S J Cook
TEAMNEWSSTOKE
Should Play - Simonsen, Griffin, Cort, Shawcross, Lawrence, Whelan, Pugh, Delap, Sidibe, Fuller
Could Play - Hoult, Dickinson, Zakuani, Broomes, Buxton, De Laet, Diao, Wedderburn, D. Phillips, Pericard, Parkin, Cresswell
Suspensions - None
Doubts - Wilkinson
Definitely Outs - Matteo
TEAMNEWSSCUNTHORPE
Should Play - Murphy, Crosby, Hobbs, Williams, Hayes, Goodwin, Cork, Hurst, Paterson, Horesfield
Could Play - Byrne, Butler, Sparrow, Forte, Lillis, May, Wright, Morris
Doubts - Iriekpen
Suspensions - McCann
Definitely Outs - Byrne
Stoke City - DDDWLWWW
Plymouth Argyle 2-2 Stoke City
Stoke City 1-1 Hull City
Ipswich Town 1-1 Stoke City
Stoke City 3-1 Preston North End
Charlton Athletic 1-0 Stoke City
Stoke City 2-1 Cardiff City
Wolves 2-4 Stoke City
Stoke City 3-2 Southampton
Scunthorpe - LDLLLWDL
WBA 5-0 Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe 2-2 Barnsley
Southampton 1-0 Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe 0-2 Wolves
Burnley 2-0 Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe 1-0 Charlton
Sheffield United 0-0 Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe 0-1 Bristol City
LASTTIMEOUT
Scunthorpe United 0 Bristol City 1
Bristol City moved second in the Championship table thanks to Bradley Orr's fortuitous 83rd-minute winner.
Orr curled a hopeful ball into the area and Scunthorpe goalkeeper Joe Murphy was distracted by Tamas Vasko's run, allowing the ball to sail into the net.
Scunthorpe will feel hard done by as City created few other chances.
The Iron had produced the best efforts but could not beat Adrian Basso with long-range shots from Kevan Hurst, Jim Goodwin, Marcus Williams and Jack Cork.
LEAGUELEADER
This week's issue of the Football League's online magazine, League Leader, is now available to download.
To view the magazine in PDF format, CLICK HERE.
MEDIAWATCH
City have appeared on both Sky Sports News and Central News throughout the afternoon. Midfield star Liam Lawrence will tomorrow be one of the guests SKY Sports Soccer AM Show. The programme starts at 9am and will be screened live on SKY Sports 1.
Ricardo Fuller is favourite to open the day's scoring for the Potters, he's priced at 9/2, while Leon Cort is a good outside bet to continue his rich vein of form at 12/1.
Full Time Result - Stoke City Win - 1/2, Draw - 3/1, Scunthorpe Win - 6/1.
Go to bet365 for more options, including live in-play betting!
STOKECITYFC.COM
If you can't get to the game then stokecityfc.com is the next best place to be.
We'll have the full line-ups as soon as they are handed over by Assistant Manager Dave Kemp, live text commentary from kick-off on the Stoke City Match Live! Console, a full and in-depth match report right on the full-time whistle, along with plenty of post-match reaction.
Stoke City World will also have highlights of the game on Sunday along with video reaction from the men that matter.
