Albion visit Scunthorpe United on Monday 28th December. This will be only our second visit there. Here's the complete record so far:
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | |
| Home | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Away | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Total |
2 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 6 |
The previous occasion was on the 22nd of September 2007, when Scunthorpe had not lost at home since the previous December and Albion were looking for their first away win of the season. The form book looked unlikely to be upset when the home side scored with a penalty in the 16th minute, but Albion took a 3-1 lead in the second half with goals from Leon Barnett, Chris Brunt, and Felipe Teixeira. The Iron got one back in the last minute, but Albion held on through eight minutes of injury time for a 3-2 win.
The return was at The Hawthorns, in the equivalent fixture (calendar-wise) to this next one - on 29th December. It was a different story this time as Albion won 5-0, with goals from Kevin Phillips (2), Ishmael Miller, Robert Koren and Zoltan Gera - and Phillips also had a penalty saved by former Albion keeper Joe Murphy!
For the record, here are the details:
| 2007/8 | Championship | Albion | 5 | 0 | Scunthorpe | Scunthorpe | 2 | 3 | Albion | W | W |
: club historyMost accounts give 1910 as the year that Scunthorpe United FC was founded. This was when a number of clubs merged and called themselves Scunthorpe and Lindsey United F.C. (Lindsey was the local government district that included Scunthorpe, until the reorganisation of 1974). An alternative account cites 1899, when some claim that the name Scunthorpe United was first used by the club that played at the Old Showground (others claim that the ground was home to Brumby Hall F.C.).
Anyway, Scunthorpe and North Lindsey joined the Midland League in 1912, and several attempts to join the Football League were turned down before they were eventually admitted to the expanded Third Division (North) in 1950.
1958 was a big year in the club's history. They dropped the Lindsey bit from their name, they had their best run to date in the FA Cup, reaching the fifth round (a feat they repeated in 1970 but have never beaten), and they won the Third Division (North) title to win promotion to the Second Division for the first time.
1958 was also the year that the Fourth Division was founded, and ten years later Scunthorpe were in it. And with the exception of three solitary seasons, that's where they stayed until as recently as 2005.
Scunthorpe's stay in the Second Division didn't get off to the best of starts as one of the Old Showground's stands burnt down a few months after they won promotion. This did however provide the local steel industry with an opportunity to build, as a replacement, Britain's first cantilever stand.
Thirty years later, in 1988, parts of the Old Showground (cantilever stand presumably excepted) were condemned in the aftermath of the Bradford fire. The club was forced to sell it to Sainsbury's and move out, and so became the first Football League club since Southend United in 1955 to move to a new ground. This was before Hillsborough and the Football Trust, so the money had to be raised locally; and it shows in the modest structure of Glanford Park (named after the local authority that sponsored it).
No history of Scunthorpe United would be complete without a mention of some of their famous players. Players such as Kevin Keegan, who played 124 League games for them before signing for Liverpool in 1971; Ray Clemence, who played 48 games and made the same move three years earlier; and of course Ian Botham, who made 11 appearances in the early 1980s in an effort to regain fitness to play cricket.
In recent years however, the big name at Scunthorpe United has been manager Brian Laws. He arrived in controversial circumstances in 1997, having been sacked by local rivals Grimsby Town - an unhappy end to his reign having included, allegedly, throwing a plate of chicken wings at Italian midfielder Ivano Bonetti. In 1999, Laws' first full season at Glanford Park ended in promotion via the play-offs, but this was followed by relegation the following year.
In March 2004, following four defeats in the space of ten days, Laws was sacked; but three weeks later he was reinstated. The Iron finished 22nd in Division Three that season, but the following year it was a different story. Scunthorpe led from the start and were top of the newly-renamed League Two going into the New Year. They ended up as runners-up to Yeovil Town.
In 2005-6, helped by 23 goals from Billy Sharp, they finished in a respectable mid-table position in League One. They made an unpromising start to the following season and were in 21st place after seven games. Results did improve, but in November 2006 Laws was finally tempted away to manage Sheffield Wednesday. The Owls were struggling to make any progress in the Championship, and chairman Dave Allen was quoted as saying "I like him - he comes from the Brian Clough camp; I'm a big fan of the Brian Clough camp". (Three years later Laws was sacked, with Wednesday in even greater trouble than when he took over.)
Meanwhile, back in 2006-7, Nigel Adkins took over the reins at Scunthorpe. His team lost only one of his first 24 games in charge, and finished top of the League One table by six clear points. Their 73 goals included 30 from Billy Sharp, eight from Jermaine Beckford and seven from Andy Keogh.
Of those three, Beckford was only on loan from Leeds United, and Keogh had already left in January 2007 to join Wolves. But worse was to come in the summer of 2007 when Sharp joined Sheffield United, and Scunthorpe failed to make any impression on the Championship. In their first season at this level for over 40 years they finished in 23rd place, and were relegated along with Colchester United and Leicester City.
They enjoyed a consistent if not spectacular season in 2008-9, following that disappointment, and were in or around the play-off places throughout. Finishing in 6th place, they beat Roberto Di Matteo's MK Dons (who finished third, with eleven points more than The Iron) in the play-off semi-finals and Millwall in the final, to return to the Championship at the first attempt.
They made a good start to the 2009-10 season, culminating in a 2-1 victory over Newcastle in October (while Albion were losing to Swansea) which left them in 14th place after 13 games. But this proved to be a turning point for both clubs, as Newcastle won their next seven games and are now undefeated in ten; while Scunthorpe lost their next five and since have won only one. A 3-0 defeat at Middlesbrough on Boxing Day left The Iron in 20th place.
Scunthorpe are hoping that their leading scorer Gary Hooper, who has missed their last two games with an ankle injury, will be fit for Albion's visit. And if Joe Murphy plays, it will be his 149th appearance for Scunthorpe.
Head to HeadAs we've already seen, we've only been in the same division as Scunthorpe once before - and that was two years ago. We won both games, so we have a 100% record against them.
We've met Scunthorpe twice in the FA Cup, and won both times. The first was in the Third Round of 1970/1, when the first match at The Hawthorns finished goalless; in the replay at the Old Showground, goals from Tony Brown (2) and Jeff Astle gave Albion a 3-1 victory. Kevin Keegan was in Scunthorpe's side at the time. Thirteen years later, in the Fourth Round of 1983-4, Mickey Forsyth's goal - his only competitive goal for Albion - was enough to put the Baggies through.
Our only other game against Scunthorpe was a friendly in February 1985, which ended 0-0. If you were to ask me why we were playing friendlies in February, I'd say it was probably for match practice as we hadn't played a competitive game for 17 days - maybe there was a freeze on. But if this was the case it didn't do much good, as we played Tottenham the following Saturday and lost 1-0.