Podcast panelist Matt Ellis pens his thoughts on a hugely positive opening day for the Iron.
Sometimes in football you need to die before you can be re-born. So it is with players, managers and football clubs. To return to where you deserve to be, you need to take a step down. Re-asses, re-group and re-work all the things you’ve got wrong in the past.
So it is with Scunthorpe United. The Iron experienced the start of its own re-birth on Saturday against Yeovil Town.
Great effort has been made by the club, the COO, the manager and the players over the summer to lay the groundwork for the Phoenix’s first flight. And make no mistake, this is where we are now, phoenix club territory.
The club had to experience ultimate humiliation last season, to go down without a fight, to embarrass itself completely on the pitch, and we did. And so, we are here, with our first win since February, with a new optimistic vibe. With a fan-zone, a marquee, a new squad, a beautiful new kit and a new *team* of players, in every sense of the word.
Credit certainly goes to the club, its staff, the manager and the players for working hard in the summer. To finally get a matchday right. How hard is it? All we want is to turn up, buy a beer, some food and watch the Iron win.
So, credit goes to the fans for believing the club can deliver on these things, as it so often has failed to do in the past 4 or so years.
Yet the revival is still in its infancy. The club still has the same owner, Swann has yet to leave. The squad is still light in some areas of the pitch. One or two injuries and we will look very shaky. We need cover and we need to exploit the weaknesses of teams in this league.
A league that seems to struggle with the concept of defending. We have a team that is still light on attacking options. This will need to be remedied if we have any real aspirations of contending for the playoffs.
Attacking players need to come in to complement the balance we have in midfield. Butterfield must be protected, supported, and given willing runners to serve his range of passing, his vision and his calmness on the ball. Fitness must be held in high regard throughout the season, to keep the best players in the squad available for the greatest number of games possible.
The fans must show patience towards players like Nuttall and Taft, who have a long way to go to endear themselves to the terrace after the collective disgrace of last season.
But all things considered, the club got it right on Saturday, the manager got it right and the players performed as a team. A word which has not been resonant for a long, long time at Glanford Park.
The platform is there. The club must push on and must not rest on its laurels. If it does continue in this light, and if Swann leaves and is replaced by owners who want to make the club upwardly mobile again, the fans will return.
As I always say; buy the ticket, take the ride.
Up the Iron.
@mgell1s
Feels a bit like the phoenix had had it’s wings clipped after these two away performances.