Scunthorpe United 1 (Mousinho 69 og)
Brentford 1 (Kuffour 39)

Scunthorpe: Murphy, Byrne, Crosby (Baraclough 31), Foster, Williams, Mulligan, Hinds (Taylor 58), Sparrow, Foy (Ferretti 59), Keogh, Sharp.
Subs Not Used: Lillis, Paul.
Booked: Keogh.

Brentford: Nelson, O'Connor, Heywood, Griffiths, Tillen, Brooker, Pinault, Mousinho, Rhodes (Tomlin 67), Moore (Charles 80), Kuffour.
Subs Not Used: Masters, Osborne, Ide.
Booked: Brooker.
Att: 3,942

Ref: C Oliver (Northumberland).

Five league games into the new season and still Scunthorpe United are looking for their first win, this latest encounter against an unbeaten Brentford side followed a similar pattern to the previous home games with the hosts dominating for long periods but only managing to claim a draw.

The Iron only made one change to the starting line up that made hard work of beating Lincoln in midweek, Keogh returning to the side in place of the injured Steve Torpey.

The first half wasn’t the most entertaining with neither team creating too much, Keogh glancing a header wide and Sharp being denied by Nelson in the visitors goal. Brentford despite playing some reasonable football created little in the way of chances but did take the lead six minutes before the interval when following a blocked free kick the ball fell to former Grimsby player Thomas Pinault who fired the ball towards goal from twenty yards, unfortunately the Iron the ball deflected off of Billy Sharp straight into the path of Jo Kuffour who fired the ball past the advancing Joe Murphy.

The visitors almost extended their advantage in the closing stages of the first half when Brooker broke clear and managed to round Murphy but was denied by a last ditch block by Dave Mulligan.

The second half could only get better for Scunthorpe who had also suffered the loss of captain Andy Crosby during the first half. The Iron certainly did improve but despite the introduction of Taylor and Ferretti they made hard work of getting back into the game, chances came and went and it started to look as though it was not going to be Scunthorpes day. That was until with just over twenty minutes left to play when a Hinds header from a Barraclough corner was glanced into his own goal by Mousinho.

The goal fired up the hosts and the proceeded to throw everything at Brentford in an attempt to grab the winner. Shots reigned in on the visitors goal, Nelson made a number of good saves, shots were blocked, Sharp fired wide when in the clear and Scunthorpe managed to hit the woodwork three times through Barraclough, Sharp and Sparrow but still they could not force the winner. In the end the visitors would have been far happier with a point while Scunthorpe will be left scratching their heads as to how they have failed to win a home match yet again despite being the better team.

The point gained was enough to move Scunthorpe out of the bottom four (for the time being anyway) but with teams below them playing today along with Scunthorpes game next week called off due to international call ups the Iron could find themselves in the bottom three or four before they next play. The number of injuries is a concern with Butler, Calliste, Allinson, Torpey, and Crosby all currently injured the squad is looking wafer thin, we are currently chasing McBreen and also have two trialists in Foy and Paul along with a loan signing in the shape of Ferretti but surely if the Iron are serious about getting away from the bottom end of the table the squad does need strengthening