Reserves Trounced 4-0 by Scunthorpe

By: Martin Copass
Date: 20/02/2002

EVERY now and again you get a match that is especially difficult to find something to report on. Today’s reserve game was such an occasion as Town were thrashed by near neighbours Scunthorpe United.

What can I say about a performance like this? The usual match report goes straight out the window, as Town were easily beaten by Scunthorpe reserves by a 4-0 score line.

In the whole 90 minutes the only time that the Scunthorpe keeper had to make a save was from a shot by Thompson after 23 minutes. After 32 minutes, a left wing cross was missed by both Rowan and Jeffery when the merest of touches would have put it in, but after that it was all down hill as the visitors took control of the game.

After 34 minutes Scunthorpe took the lead through Payton when his edge of the box shot went through a crowd of players to beat the Town keeper to his right.

This about sums up the first half, as Town huffed and puffed without really looking like being able to break the visitors defence at any time.

The second half had just got started when Scunthorpe were awarded a penalty and Bradshaw had no problems with making it 2-0 and with the way Town were playing it was game over.

Two second half substitutions made little difference to Town’s performance, as they seemed to get worse the longer the game went on. Scunthorpe went close twice around the hour mark, and again after 70 minutes but were denied this time by the Town keeper.

However after 72 minutes, Anderson made it 3-0 and you began to wonder just how many more they would get! One was the answer as Brough made it 4-0 with just the added time to play.

This was truly an awful performance and was easily the worse reserve performance I have witnessed this season. It seems quite ironic that whilst the reserves were full of the younger players they were doing well, but as soon as the first team players started to play their results and performances seemed to start getting worse as the season went on.

The numbers on the shirts hardly matched the team sheet, but there was no hiding from the poor performances put on by the so called first team players. At first it may have seemed that there were four strikers on the pitch, but by the end you wondered as to whether there were any at all. Thompson and Jevons were not playing as actual strikers, that job was left to Jeffery and Rowan. Jevons played on the left and Thompson in midfield.

I am hoping this was a one off performance, because if it wasn’t then I fear for the future if these are the players expected to perform for Town. As it was a cup match, it does not affect their slim chances of getting promotion to a higher league, but they will have to perform better than this in their next game. It will also give me something more to report on!!

Town Cranley, Moran, Ward, Morgan, Jevons, Bolder, Thompson ( R ), Downes, Thompson ( C ), Rowan, Jeffery
Subs Kirwin, Parker, Carchedi, Mansaram, Hildred

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