Anyway, if the first five minutes were as dire as the rest of the first half, I didn’t miss much. We fielded the same side as at Southend, apart from Young returning at right-back with Purches reverting to the left. It soon became apparent that Scunthorpe were a decent footballing side and not at all overawed by Fortress FFS. We, on the other hand, looked tentative and lack-lustre to say the least. Neither of our two wide men, Wade Elliott and Danny Thomas, could make any impression and our midfield seemed unable to assert any control. As I write this on Sunday evening, I’m finding it hard to remember any incidents of note, apart from a couple of yellow cards, before Scunthorpe’s well-deserved goal after 25 minutes. After a neat passing move, Sparrow shot on the turn from just inside the area and Moss somehow let his low effort squirm out of his grasp and trickle over the line. Torpey was on hand to make sure and today’s papers are crediting him with the goal. Anyway, it was no more than the visitors deserved.
Apart from that, the only excitement at the other end of the pitch was a goalmouth scrimmage that ended with the Iron defence clearing the ball to safety. All in all, a very disappointing half with Scunthorpe the better team by some distance. Anyone entering the 1st Half MOM competition would have been hard put to nominate a Cherries player, although I suppose Carl Fletcher did deserve the accolade.
HT 0-1
Although the team that took the field after the break had the same names on their shirts, they were unrecognisable! Suddenly the self-belief was there and they started to play like automatic promotion candidates, as one player above all began to turn it on - he whose brilliance is now the stuff of ballads….Wade Elliott! But it was another youngster who brought the Cherries deservedly level just before the hour mark, as predicted by Psychic Phil sitting next to me! "Broadhurst’s due for a goal," he had muttered tersely half an hour earlier. How right he was! A Garreth O’Connor free-kick was headed on by Marcus Browning and Broady climbed high at the far post to record his first professional goal in 100 appearances. The lad was so chuffed he didn’t know where to run, let alone how to celebrate. He eventually opted for an ungainly slither on the wet turf, but who cared!
By now Wade was really on fire and tormenting the Iron left-back Dawson who had already been booked and knew he was living dangerously. Ably assisted by Neil Young, he was causing the hitherto solid Scunthorpe defence all kinds of problems down the right flank. And it was one these sorties that brought the winner five minutes later – a goal that is worth setting your video up for. Scampering to the byline, he crossed the ball for James Hayter to power a majestic diving header into the back of the net. Surely one of best goals ever seen as the FFS.
It was hard to imagine that this was the same team that had looked so inept in the first half. But Scunthorpe were still in the game and looked likely to equalize when Kilford struck a fierce drive from 18 yards. However, Moss made up for his earlier mishap by twisting acrobatically to his right to tip the ball over the bar for a corner. Scunthorpe had a couple of corners near the end, but we held on quite comfortably to record our eighth consecutive home win and remain in third place. Football is all about confidence, and if Sean and Peter can instil that into this young team, they’ll be hard to beat.
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AFCB: Moss, Purches, Young, C. Fletcher, Broadhurst, Elliott, Browning, O’Connor, Thomas, (Tindall 78) S. Fletcher, Hayter (Holmes 90).
Subs not used: Tardif, Chukki, Narada
Ellis Griffin, Chertsey