Marcus Braddock looks
After a weeks respite from the campaign, a trip to Lincolnshire to meet Scunthorpe is on the horizon this weekend. Unfortunately we find ourselves out of the automatic promotion places after Wigan's late winner at Bradford on Wednesday. It put them above us on goal difference but this weekend gives us the chance to climb back above Wigan as they face Southampton in the FA Cup on Sunday. Scunthorpe have had a bit of a lean spell since the turn of the year with just one win since they beat Bury on new years day. They've picked up points from a few draws and managed to stay in the top six but they need to arrest their slide as Peterborough and Plymouth loom with games in hand. Last weekends 3-3 draw at Wigan could be a sign that their form is about to improve and an indication that this weekend could be a difficult one.
Top Scorers
Josh Morris 10
Duane Holmes 7
Tom Hopper 7
Kevin van Veen 5
Lee Novak 5
Assists
Josh Morris 6
Kevin van Veen 3
Duane Holmes 3
Stephen Dawson 3
Tom Hopper 3
Scott Wiseman 3
Clean Sheets
Six at home and five away.
Stats
Scunthorpe have won 39% of their home games this season with 28% ending in defeats.
They've scored 1.22 goals per home game and conceded 1.06.
Their best period of the game at home is the last fifteen minutes with eight goals scored.
Scunthorpe are the eleventh best team at home in League one with 27 points from 18 games.
Referee
Michael Salisbury from Lancashire. Games this season: 31. Yellow cards: 69. Red cards: 4.
Assistants Duncan Street and Richard Wigglesworth.
Fourth official: Marc Edwards.
Team News
Scunthorpe: Lee Novak will still be unavailable because of a heel injury.
Town: James Bolton is still a little bit away from returning to full training.
Summary
This is another of those games that looks straightforward given the form but in reality is a very tricky fixture. Scunthorpe may have indifferent form but they have in form teams breathing down their neck, so I can see a good Scunthorpe performance, especially given their good result at Wigan. We could really do with extending our away run of four games, keeping the pressure on the teams above us is everything now and keeping the teams behind us where they are comes a close second.
COYB!!!