Nottingham Forest v Scunthorpe United match report 7th Oct 2006

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0
SCUNTHORPE UNITED 4 (Taylor 28, Keogh 36, Morris 66, Sharp 90)

Forest: Smith, Curtis, Breckin, Morgan, Bennett, Perch, Gary Holt, Southall, Common, Lester, Grant Holt (Harris 57).
Subs Not Used: Pedersen, Thompson, James, Hughes.
Booked: Lester 49, Commons 64

Iron: Murphy, Hinds, Crosby, Foster, Williams (McBreen 84), Taylor, Barraclough (MacKenzie 85), Sparrow, Morris, Sharp, Keogh.
Subs Not Used: Lillis, Mulligan, Byrne.
Booked: Barraclough 30, Hinds 50.

Attendance: 22,640

Referee: I Williamson

The Iron produced their best performance of the season at the City Ground in front of the biggest crowd at any League One match all season and in front of Sky cameras. Going into the game Forest were sat proudly at the top of the league table with only one defeat and just six league goals conceded in their opening twelve games, United went into the game in seventh position and as the form team of the division. Everything pointed to a good, close game of football, but once the visitors went in front just before the half hour mark their was only going to be one winner.

Forest started the game in reasonable fashion and if anything were better side in the opening stages with both Nicky Southall, Jack Lester and Grant Holt all going close for the former European Cup winners. It was far from one-way traffic though and Ian Barraclough was the first to test either keeper, forcing Smith into a save after good work by Taylor.

Scunthorpe finally broke the deadlock on twenty eight minutes when Matty Sparrow charged into the box, the midfielder was halted by Ian Brekin but the loose ball ran straight to Cleveland Taylor who gleefully smashed the ball past Smith to put the Iron one up.

The travelling United support didn’t have long to wait for the second goal, the scorer was Andy Keogh who finished smartly after good play by Billy Sharp.

Surely it couldn’t last, Scunthorpe must have expected some kind of response from Forest but it was not to be, Murphy had one of his quietest afternoons of the season and was only occasionally called into action, only once did he have to make a save of any real note when he came out to block an effort from Nicky Southall.

It came as no real surprise when the third goal did arrive, Cleveland Taylor once again found space on the right hand side and his pull back reached Morris who took his time before slotting past Smith for his second goal in Scunthorpe colours.

Things just continued to get better and better for the visitors and the hard working Billy Sharp capped a hard working performance by adding goal number four deep into stoppage time. The free scoring front man managed to break free from the clutches of Morgan before firing home his ninth goal of the season.

The only down side for United was the late knocks picked up by both Williams and Barraclough, both having to be replaced in the closing minutes.

United can be rightly proud of another impressive performance, one which initially put them in second place in the league table, dropping to third a few hours later due to Bristol City picking up a point at Brentford.

It was a truly superb team effort and not an easy task to pick out individual performances, though the likes of Sparrow and Sharp would probably be in the running if pressed to select a man of the match award.

It is very easy to get carried away by results and performances like this, the players have had a lot of nice things said about them over recent weeks, most of it deserved, but the hard work has only just started, performances like this need to be produced on a more regular basis, if they are, who knows where we could be come the end of the season!

I think that a friend who is a Grimsby Town supporter who claimed that ‘It is hard to admit it, but Scunthorpe look like a very good team and the only think that I can find to criticise is Joe Murphy’s hair style’ best described this performance

Praise and fashion statements from a Grimsby fan, do things get any better than this?