OPPONENTS: Scunthorpe United Football Club
MANAGER: Graham Alexander
NICKNAME: The Iron
LEAGUE POSITION: 6th
THE JOURNEY: Fratton Park to Glanford Park – 500 mile round trip, give yourself 4 and a half hours each way.
LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey bounced back from a disappointing result against Northampton with a 4-1 win against Fleetwood last Saturday. Brett Pitman and Jamal Lowe scored a header and a screamer each.
* Scunthorpe continued their good start to the season with a 1-0 win over local rivals Doncaster. Lee Novak scored the only goal of the game in the opening 10 minutes.
POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey prepare for their 3rd away game in a fortnight, and picked up 6 points from their past 3 games which took place within 7 days.
* Pompey’s win over Fleetwood was their biggest win this season, and was the first time they scored 4 goals in the third tier since March 1992, when they beat Millwall 6-1 thanks to a hat-trick from Guy Whittingham.
* Brett Pitman’s brace against Fleetwood puts him as joint top scorer in League One, joining Rotherham’s Kieffer Moore and Peterborough’s Jack Marriott on 6 goals (1 more than Aguero and Lukaku).
* No team have conceded less corners on the road this season than Pompey. Their opponents have only managed to rack up 11 corners in 4 games.
* Top Scorer: Pitman (6), Chaplin/Lowe (2)
SCUNNY STATS:
* Scunny narrowly missed out on promotion to the Championship last season, finishing one place outside the automatic promotion places, and lost their subsequent play-off match to Millwall.
* They’ve started this season in a similar form with 4 wins and 3 draws from their 8 games so far this season.
* Despite this start, the Irons have only scored more than 1 goal in 1 game this season. They have scored less goals than anyone else in the top half of the table, and of the 92 Football League clubs, there have been less goals per game in Scunny games than for any other team.
* However, they have the joint best defensive record in England, and have conceded just 3 goals in their 8 games this season.
* Top Scorers: Paddy Madden (4), Josh Morris (3), Duane Holmes (2)
HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey and Scunny have a perfectly balanced history since their first post-war meeting in 1954. Pompey have won 8, lost 8 and drawn 8 of their last 24 meetings.
* Scunny will have fond memories of the last meeting between the two sides in February 2014 as they recorded a 5-1 win at Glanford Park on their way to League Two promotion. Michael Drennan scored a late consolation for the Blues as The Iron racked up a 28 game unbeaten run.
* It has been 55 years since Pompey have won a league game away to Scunnythorpe, when they played at The Old Showground. Albie McCann and Johnny Gordon were on target for George Smith’s men in October 1962.
PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM/SCUMMER WATCH
* With a big North/South divide in place, I can’t find any current players that have played for the other club. Feel free to add your own below of historical players who played for both. I’ll get us started with Andy Barcham and Dion Burton
ONE TO WATCH:
* Paddy Madden – Finally, I can call this one a Paddy without fear of someone taking it the wrong way! Madden has been on my radar for years, and was once tipped as the future of Irish football. he’s had a stop-start time of it, but finally cement his place into the team when he joined Scunny in January 2014, even scoring his first goal in the 5-1 rout mentioned above. He plays as part of a 2 man front line and his goal record speaks volumes, having netted 50 times since joining The Iron.
PREDICTION:
* This will be a tough tough game. They’re the best side still in League One based on last years performances. Scunny have conceded just 3 times this season, and will be incredibly tricky to break down. That being said with Pitman finding scoring for fun and Lowe finding his form last Saturday, we will be full of confidence. However, I expect a cautious game with chances at a premium, finishing 0-0 with both teams hitting the woodwork at some point in the second half.
NEXT 5 GAMES:
Tue 26th Sep – Bristol Rovers (H) – League One
Sat 30th Sep – Oldham (H) – League One
Tue 3rd Oct – Crawley (H) – EFL Trophy
Sun 8th Oct – Gillingham (A) – League One
Sat 14th Oct – MK Dons (H) – League One
PUP
Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.
Follow @VitalPortsmouth.
2017-18 Prediction League – September
Scunthorpe (a) – Saturday 23rd September 2017 – click here.
Bristol Rovers (h) – Tuesday 26th September 2017 – click here.
Oldham (h) – Saturday 30th September 2017 – click here.
