Scunthorpe United FC

United made it successive home wins after a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Chesterfield on Tuesday evening, their second victory in four days.

The Iron controlled the game for large periods and won the game thanks to second half goals from Niall Canavan and Paddy Madden, both scoring their second in as many games.

Canavan headed home the first from a corner, following a sustained spell of pressure from the Iron, before Madden netted the second from inside the area.

The Iron were hoping to make it two wins in the space of four days, following Saturday’s impressive comeback victory over promotion contenders Swindon Town.

Mark Robins opted to stick with the same side that won on Saturday, with Kevin van Veen making his second start in a Scunthorpe shirt.

The visitors made a host of changes going into the game, after suffering consecutive defeats, with manager Paul Cook hoping to get his side’s play-off chase back on track.

It was the Iron who started the brighter though, Tom Hopper going close twice in the opening five minutes, with one header cleared off the line.

The pressure continued and some neat build up play between Jordan Clarke and Paddy Madden resulted in the latter surging into the box, only for his effort to be smothered by visiting ‘keeper Tommy Lee.

Chesterfield had been quiet in the opening exchanges and it took 17 minutes for them to muster their first real effort on Luke Daniels’ goal, but Ritchie Humphreys’ header went harmlessly wide.

As the half grew on, the game became a little stretched as both teams had chances to open the scoring, although neither could find a way through.

Humphries went close for the visitors, but his turn and shot drifted wide of the post following a neat dummy in the build up from Jay O’Shea.

Down the other end, Madden continued to test the visiting ‘keeper, although Lee was equal to both of his efforts, getting strong hands behind the ball.

The game continued in the same fashion for the remainder of the first half, but both ‘keepers were relatively untroubled as the half drew to a close.

The Iron tried to up the ante at the start of the second half and it nearly paid dividends, with Tom Hopper firing straight at Lee after controlling the ball well.

Just moments later Madden had another chance for United, but he could not direct his header goal wards and it harmlessly went over the bar.

The Iron striker was continuing to pose a threat and forced two saves out of Lee in the space of a minute as the hosts pressed for a goal.

Madden’s second effort led to the opener as his header forced a corner out of the Chesterfield ‘keeper, with the resulting delivery headed home by Niall Canavan.

That was the second goal in as many games for the defender, who smartly peeled off around the back to head home a Liam O’Neil corner to put the Iron into a 58th minute lead.

Chesterfield had brought Armand Gnanduillet on before the goal, but swiftly made both of their remaining changes in an attempt to get a foothold in the game.

The Iron continued to press, with Madden looking lively once again, however Lee was untroubled by any of the efforts on his goal.

Gnanduillet had his first chance since coming on, drilling an effort wide from the edge of the box after being played in by fellow substitute Caolan Lavery.

The Spireites were struggling to really test Daniels in the Iron goal though and United continued to press forward in search of a second goal.

Neal Bishop flicked a corner on at the near post, but it dropped just wide of the post and without anyone at the back to attack it.

The corners swung in by O’Neil were causing great problems though and another well worked routine led to a scramble in the visiting penalty area.

The game was put beyond doubt with five minutes remaining as Madden got the goal his evening’s work had deserved to make it 2-0 to the Iron.

Daniel Jones lost the ball for the visitors and Madden broke clear to finish inside Lee’s near post, securing the points for the Iron.

Chesterfield tried to push forward in an attempt to salvage a point from the match, but were unable to test the United defence, who enjoyed their first clean sheet since October.
 
TEAM LINE-UPS
Scunthorpe United: Daniels, Clarke, Davey (Boyce, 68), Canavan, Williams, Bishop, O'Neil, Evans, Madden, Hopper (Osbourne, 63), van Veen (Wootton, 82).
Substitutes not used: Anyon, Nolan, McAllister, Adelakun.

Chesterfield: Lee, Darikwa, Hird, Morsy, Carter, Ryan, O'Shea, Clucas, Humphreys (Jones, 59), Harrison (Gnanduillet, 58), Ariyibi (Lavery, 63).
Substitutes not used: Chapman, Raglan, Duffy, Banks.

Attendance: 3,601 (432 away).