CARLTON NETS TO CHEER IRON
Butler’s boys KO Shaymen
SCUNTHORPE United edged their home friendly against higher level FC Halifax Town courtesy of a deflected second-half strike from one of their six summer signings.
Carlton Ubaezuonu, formerly of Chorley, struck in the 63rd minute to settle the tie, with a wicked deflection resulting in the ball lifting over Shaymen shotstopper Sam Johnson for the game’s only goal in an otherwise tightly contested affair.
Ubaezuonu was arguably one of the standout performers throughout, with his goal added to a number of strikes to his name in the warm-up games so far.
However, in truth, neither goalkeeper was severely tested on the day with a distinct lack of efforts on target.
The closest Halifax did come to an equaliser came in the final minute of the game with Adan George’s free-kick clearing the wall but striking the crossbar, with referee Ruebyn Ricardo ending proceedings a mere matter of seconds later.
Prior to that, the National League side’s best chance of the game came in the first half through Andrew Oluwabori.
The Nigerian cut inside from the left and stroked an effort across goal and narrowly wide of Ross Fitzsimons’ far post.
A flurry of changes, as is usually the case in pre-season, disrupted the second half rhythm somewhat, with the Shaymen putting the hosts on the back foot towards the end.
Former Scunthorpe midfielder Tom Pugh replaced another former Iron player in Jack Jenkins, and did almost return to haunt his former employers in providing an assist, but his ball through to George resulted in a near miss from his opportunity on goal.
Unsurprisingly, it was Scunthorpe United manager Andy Butler who was the happier of the two gaffers post-match.
Reacting to his National League North side’s sixth straight pre-season victory, and first against higher league opposition, he said: “It was a good test, and that’s why we wanted this fixture putting in.
“Halifax are a very good side, very organised and good on the ball.
“We knew it would be a test, and it was, and we had to work really hard when we didn’t have possession. When we did have it, we had to be good with it.
“Credit to the players – we’ve only started to drip feed in the out-of-possession stuff this week because the games we’ve played previously we’ve had a lot of possession.
“It was a good workout.”