Confidence should be high after the great victory over the Farmers on Saturday and I would expect Tilly to start with the same team though Francis might be considered for Grant to add attacking options, however it didn't work against Crewe!
The continuing good form of the Moose, even playing out of position is uplifting.
Dougie Freedman's thigh injury is not reported as serious and Tilly will make a late decision to see if he can make the bench at least.
Speaking to the Echo skipper Adam Barrett spoke about the weekend win: "These games are always great to be a part of and to get the victory was just fantastic. It's always brilliant to beat the rivals and I thought the shape of the team was spot on. We defended well and dug in to make sure we bounced back from losing to Crewe in the week and it's an excellent result. I know what this game means to people and that makes winning even sweeter. It's been tough for them at times this season but we've won three out of the last four now and appear to have become more consistent now so hopefully we can keep this going."
OPPOSITION
Scunthorpe, who are fifth in the table, are without the suspended Cliff Byrne and David Mirfin, while Marcus Williams (foot) and Kenny Milne (knee) are also missing.
Michael Lea has a hamstring problem and is not expected to travel and 35-year-old assistant manager Andy Crosby could be called in for his first league start of the season.
However, Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins has brought in two loan signings.
The first was Liam Trotter, who had been training with the Iron previous to the loan swoop and insists he is raring to go and keen to show Scunthorpe fans what he can do.
Adkins said: "I've looked at the players around me and who I might play with, and I think I will add something different. There's not a lot of height in the side and that's definitely something I can bring."
The second signing of the day was the left-back Joseph Mills, who also joins on a one month emergency loan deal.
The move follows a hamstring injury to Michael Lea, who looked set to start on the left at Roots Hall as regular defenders Cliff Byrne and Dave Mirfin are all suspended.
Mills is an England U19 international and will go straight into the side for Tuesday's clash with the Shrimpers.
| 4 | Oldham Athletic | 32 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 31 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 25 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 51 | 39 | 54 | +12 | ||||
| 5 | Scunthorpe United | 30 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 28 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 26 | 24 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 54 | 42 | 53 | +12 | ||||
| 6 | Millwall | 30 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 20 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 40 | 34 | 52 | +6 | ||||
| 7 | Stockport County | 32 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 26 | 20 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 23 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 49 | 36 | 51 | +13 | ||||
What eleven the Iron put out will depend a lot on who they can select after all sorts of fun and games in Wiltshire at the weekend.
Scunthorpe United manager Nigel Adkins would not be drawn on the controversial performance of referee Chris Sarginson as his side were beaten 4-2 by Swindon Town.
The scoreline only told half the story as the Iron ended up playing the majority of the second half with nine men after skipper Cliff Byrne and David Mirfin were both dismissed for picking up second yellow cards. They were debatable decisions from a neutral point of view, with Adkins keen to look at the tapes after the game, while not letting his, obviously incensed, players talk to the media.
Speaking to the Scunthorpe Telegraph Adkins said: "The referee has had an interesting game to say the least. But what we wanted to do was not give him an opportunity to do anything in the second half and, within 30 seconds of the first opportunity, he has (sent off Cliff Byrne). Obviously the referee has had a challenging afternoon and everyone is going to talk about him."
Of course the loss of players has made Adkins even angrier that the original fixture was called off: "We wanted the game to be played when it was scheduled at the beginning of February because we said we might not be as strong when we had to go back and lo and behold, that is exactly what is going to happen. But it presents opportunities for other players to stake a claim to come and stay in the team."
Danny Wilson's Swindon certainly benefited from the all-action display by referee Sarginson. He rightly believed the official changed the face of the game, highlighted by the fact that United were 2-0 up and cruising before the red cards.
Wilson said: "I'm sure from Nigel Adkins' point of view, he will look at the referee's decisions and think that they maybe cost his side the game. From where I was sat, I thought they were warranted. There wasn't much he could have done with the sending off. I thought in the first half he should have sent David Mirfin off for his tackle on Michael Timlin which was horrendous. We tidied up better in the second half but the incidents that occurred changed the complexion of the game, thankfully in our favour." (HRK scoring one of the four Swindon goals, Hoops, of course, grabbing one of Scunny's.)
PREVIOUSLY
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The man in the middle is Keith Hill from Hertfordshire.
FIXTURES
Tuesday, 24 February 2009; (all kick-offs 19.45): Brighton v Northampton, Cheltenham v Millwall, Colchester v Stockport, Crewe v Yeovil, Oldham v Bristol Rovers, Peterborough v Carlisle, Swindon v Hartlepool.
BET
Southend (9/5) Draw (12/5) Scunthorpe (7/4)
For all the footy odds go here: www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one.
HISTORY
Scunthorpe were the first club in England to build a cantilever stand, four years before Sheffield Wednesday's at Hillsborough.
In 1988 Scunthorpe United became the first English football club in the modern era to move to a new, purpose built stadium: Glanford Park.
When it became apparent that the Old Showground needed significant investment to maintain its fabric and to make it comply with new regulations introduced in the wake of the Bradford Fire Disaster (which the club were unable to make due to financial difficulties) the decision was made to relocate. The ground was sold to the former supermarket chain Safeway and the search was started for a new location.
Land was secured near the village of Guinness in what was then the administrative area of Glanford meaning that the new ground was outside the boundaries of Scunthorpe (although this changed with the reorganisation of local government in 1994 as both Scunthorpe Borough Council and Glanford Borough Council became North Lincolnshire Council).
At this time there were no grants available and the development had to funded with the cash from the sale of the Old Showground, sponsorship, directors' loans and bank loans. This lack of outsider cash means that Glanford Park was built in a rather simplistic, box-like style, with a significantly smaller capacity than the Old Showground.
The ground was so named because it was sponsored by the Glanford Borough Council. The site of the former ground is now home to a Sainsbury's store and can be found at the junction of Doncaster Road and Henderson Avenue. When the store was opened a plaque was laid where the centre-spot was, just in front of the delicatessen counter; the plaque has since been removed.
The ground, though small, offers some of the best views of the pitch in any league due to the simple layout and aforementioned lack of stands.
In 1992, the club made the third division play-off final, at Wembley, losing out eventually on a penalty shoot-out to Blackpool (see here).
The club again made the play-off final in 1999, again at Wembley, this time beating Leyton Orient 1-0 after a goal from Alex Calvo-Garcia. They were promoted to the Football League Division Two. They were subsequently relegated at the end of the following season.
They started the 2004-05 season in Football League Two, but gained promotion to Football League One. The Club was nearly relegated to the Conference National the season before. In the 2004/5 season they led Chelsea, the Premiership champions, 1-0, in the FA Cup 3rd Round, but were denied as they eventually went down 3-1.
Before the 2005/06 season began, Scunthorpe were predicted to end up among the relegation battlers, having only been promoted to the division the previous season.
Close season signings included teenage striker Billy Sharp from Sheffield United for £100,000. The Iron lost Paul Hayes and Richard Kell to Barnsley during the summer due to the players being out of contract, although due to Hayes' age, a F.A. tribunal set a fee of up to £150,000 for him, but have now got him back again!
Scunthorpe United opened the 2005-06 season away at Brentford F.C., where they lost 2-0. However, after this early setback, things picked up for The Iron, who at a couple of points early in the season occupied first place in the division. Their early season good form hit a peak with away victory to League One high-fliers Huddersfield Town by four goals to one. Teenage strike partnership Andy Keogh and Billy Sharp made a name for themselves at this time.
However, subsequently they slid down the league table somewhat, due in part to two 5-2 defeats, away at Blackpool and Barnsley. The club took Peter Till, a winger from Birmingham City and Michael Rose, a left-back from Yeovil Town on loan, though the former has now returned to his club, as well as Neil MacKenzie, originally loaned from Macclesfield Town before the move was made permanent in the January transfer window.
In the 2005-06 season the club finished 12th in Coca-Cola League 1 with a record of P46 W15 D15 L16 F68 A73 Pts 60 GD-5. Billy Sharp finished the season joint top scorer of the season with 23 league goals, sharing the Golden Boot with Southend's very own Freddy Eastwood.
The 2006/07 league season got off to a poor start, losing 1-0 to Bristol City, and having Steve Torpey sent off for violent conduct in the process however a new club record of 19 games without defeat saw them reach the top of the table, until Northampton Town beat The Iron 2-1, bringing the run to an end.
On April 14, 2007, Scunthorpe beat Huddersfield 2-0, after two goals from Billy Sharp, thus ensuring their promotion to the Coca Cola Championship. They also clinched the title on 28 April 2007, despite a 3-1 defeat at Blackpool. Scunthorpe recorded another 3-0 home win and later were crowned champions of League One.
2006-2007 was arguably the Iron's best season to date. The number of points achieved (91) and the number of goals scored by Billy Sharp (30) were greater than those achieved by any other team in the Premiership and the Football League.
Scunthorpe started strengthening their squad for the 2007-08 season in the Championship by signing Kevan Hurst permanently for a club record £200,000 from Sheffield United. The Iron then signed Paul Hayes back from Barnsley F.C. for a fee that was eventually decided, (but remained undisclosed), in September 2007, without the need to be decided by a Football League tribunal.
Scunthorpe's return to this level began with an away match against newly relegated Charlton Athletic. The first match between these sides in 33 years resulted in a 1-1 draw at The Valley with an attendance of over 23,000.
This was followed a week later with the first home game played by United in the second tier of English football for 43 years with Burnley being the visitors. The game ended 2-0 in Scunthorpe's favour, with Martin Paterson, (my word, not the former TLG editor, no wonder I haven't had an article), scoring his first goal for the club with a second scored by Jim Goodwin.
On 12 April 2008, the Iron were relegated from the Championship following a 2-0 defeat away at promotion chasing Crystal Palace. They finished second from bottom in the final table with 46 points, drawing their final game of the season 3-3 with bottom-placed Colchester.
After relegation from the Championship, Scunthorpe released some players, the most notable of which was midfielder Jim Goodwin who had played most of Scunthorpe's games, also leaving were Alexander Morfaw and Dave Mulligan. After much speculation about his future, Andrew Butler refused to sign a new contract and instead opted to join League One rivals Huddersfield. Joe Murphy was quoted as wanting to return to the Championship to further his dream of playing as the Republic of Ireland's number one keeper, however he decided to see out the last year on his contract stating that if Scunthorpe did not make a swift return to the championship, he would leave.
Top scorer Martin Paterson was subject to much speculation; initially Scunthorpe rejected a £400,000 bid from Burnley and rejected a personally handed transfer request from the player. Burnley increase their offer and on Monday 23 June 2008 he completed his move and signed a four year contract being worth £1 Million for Scunthorpe up front and up to £300,000 extra based on appearances.
On 27 May 2008, midfielder Garry Thompson was signed on a free transfer after rejecting a new contract from Morecombe, he was brought into replace former right sided midfielder Cleveland Taylor, who left in January to join League One club Carlisle United for a nominal sum, (believed to be £85,000). On Friday 4th July, Scunthorpe signed defender Kenny Milne from Falkirk on a free transfer, who was ambitious to play in the English leagues, having played in the Scottish league, mostly with Falkirk, all of his football career. On 14 July 2008 Scunthorpe completed the signing on Gary Hooper from The Blues for a fee believed to be around £175,000. David Mirfin was signed from League One rivals Huddersfield Town for £150,000 on August 11. For their pre-season games, Scunthorpe brought in some trailist, the most notable whom was former Manchester United trainee Michael Lea.
(Thanks to the usual suspects for their help with this article.)