Bournemouth v Scunthorpe Utd Match Report 23 Sept 2006

AFC BOURNEMOUTH 1 (Anderton 22)
SCUNTHORPE UNITED 1 MacKenzie 19)

Bournemouth: Stewart, Young, Broadhurst, Gowling, Cummings, Purches, Cooke (Ainsworth 60), Foley, Hayter, Anderton (Cooper 72), Fletcher (Best 84).
Subs Not Used: Moss, Hollands.
Booked: Purches.

Scunthorpe: Murphy, Byrne, Crosby, Foster, Williams, Taylor, Hinds, Sparrow (Barraclough 90), MacKenzie, Keogh, Sharp.
Subs Not Used: Lillis, Ridley, McBreen, Morris.
Booked: Sparrow.

Att: 5,256
Ref: A Marriner (W Midlands).

Scunthorpe headed to Bournemouth in confident mood after two successive league wins and a decent showing against Aston Villa in the cup. Going into the game Bournemouth sat one place and one point better off than United.

The Iron made a number of changes to the side that had started in midweek against Villa, Byrne coming in for Mulligan at right back, Crosby came in at centre back, with Hinds sitting just in front of the back four. Morris was left out of the starting eleven, which meant Keogh moving to the left, Neil MacKenzie also replaced Ian Baraclough, and the Iron started with a 4-1-4-1 formation.

The change of personnel and formation appeared not to be working early on, Bournemouth making all of the early running and probably should have opened the scoring on more than one occasion.
Gradually the visitors worked their way into the game and took the lead after nineteen minutes, the ball falling to MacKenzie just inside the Bournemouth penalty area and the former Macclesfield midfielder fired United ahead.

The lead would not last long however, Andre Marriner awarded Bournemouth a dubious looking free kick halfway inside the Iron half. There seemed to be little danger as former England international Darren Anderton prepared to take the free kick, but the experienced midfielder blasted the ball straight past the United wall and a stranded Joe Murphy before hitting the crossbar and dropping over the line for a remarkable goal from all of thirty yards.

The rest of the first half was rather scrappy though Sparrow was unlucky to see his drive from the edge of the box go inches wide of the post.

Bournemouth almost went ahead in the opening seconds of the second half when a header from the edge of the box by the experienced Fletcher crashed against the woodwork.

Gradually though Scunthorpe started to get on top and for long periods they dominated the second half but only occasionally looked like scoring until the last few minutes, first of all Sparrow squared the ball to Billy Sharp who only had the keeper to beat but United’s top scorer could only tamely shoot straight at the keeper from twelve yards out. Then as the game drifted into stoppage time Andy Keogh fed the ball into Sharp who again only had the keeper to beat, this time Sharp tried to take the ball around Stewart in the Bournemouth goal but again he was denied as the keeper took the ball from Sharps boot.
Many Iron fans would have accepted a point before kick off but looking back on the ninety minutes this was probably two points lost rather than one gained. Apart from the opening twenty minutes United looked the better side, this despite a change of team and formation.

It would be hard to single out one outstanding individual for United but the likes of Byrne, Foster, Williams, Sparrow and Taylor should all be happy with their performance, unfortunately it was an afternoon that Billy Sharp would rather forget about.

Next up for United is the visit to Chesterfield on Wednesday night with a 7.45 kick off.