Rotherham 1:1 Scunthorpe

The 352 formation was kept with Yeard, Denti and Duds making the back trio. In midfield JV and Andy P provided the width and extra defensive cover while Gaz and Lee were the main stay midfielders. Sat just behind the front two was Jammer leaving Jebu and Burnsy up front who have both troubled the Scunthorpe defence in the past few seasons.

It wasn’t the performance IMFC were looking for. There were dead legs all around the park and given Scunny had played us numerous times already this season they knew the right buttons to press to restrict our play.

Consequently it was a very scrappy, somewhat poor quality first half with neither team looking capable of qualifying for the cup let alone winning the tournament. The second half wasn’t much better as people were still in bed instead of fired up for the game.

Credit to Bodie and the Scunny lads, whereas they too looked a little leggy and tired they had obviously done their homework and were battling hard. We all thought one goal would settle it and with Mr Burns in the ranks he obliged by scoring a great goal with about 7 minutes to go. He got onto a long ball and with a nice first touch hit a booming shot into the back of the net. The goal was caught on DVD for those who manage to get their hands on a copy.

You would have thought this might spur the Millers on but there was no such luck. Scunthorpe picked up their game and to be fair controlled the remainder of the match. With 2 minutes to go they got a deserved equalizer to see the game finish 1-1. Some sloppy play in the middle of the park meant IMFC lost possession and a sweeping long pass out wide was misjudged by Denti who went for a header leaving the Scunny winger in miles of space free at the back post. He calmly controlled and slotted home to earn Scunny a share of the spoils.

Sobering up fast

It was obvious that if we had any ambitions of doing well in this tournament that the performances would have to improve one hundred fold. Even though there was slight disappointment at conceding a late equalizer in general we felt lucky to get out of the game with a point. With the weakest opponents in the group, Crewe, up next it was imperative to bang some goals past them to give us commanding goal difference.

However, before that there was a friendly against Sports Interactive to get all those who didn’t get a run in the first game a full 30 mins and also a chance for our elderly supporters to get the IMFC shirt on and have a run out!

In the build up to the friendly the management team debated the side for the Crewe game. There was a few pre planned changes that would be enforced but the biggest change of all would be a move in formation from 352 to 442. Without Mark M in the back 3 Burnsy and JV felt a 442 would give the team more flexibility throughout the tournament. Ultimately this proved to be the case with a few unlikely warriors emerging throughout the tournament in positions not first expected.

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