The Harriers went into this game on equal points with Scunthorpe and a good chance to move back into the play-offs and they went and threw it all away.
With a debut for
Wes Morgan, our new loan signing from Forest, and a recall to the starting line up for Andy Bishop things looked promising and thats the way it started with the Harriers taking control from the off in an unusual (for us) 4-4-2 formation.
Harriers almost took the lead in the first minute of the game when Sam Shilton fired a cross from Danny Williams just over the bar. Then JJ Melligan watched his shot land on the top of the net which was followed soon after by a Danny Williams header from Sam Shilton's corner that went narrowly over.
It wasn't all going the Harriers way though. At times Scunthorpe were employing four men to mark Bo Henriksen and also paying lots of attention to JJ and these two were struggling to make their mark on the game.
Andy Bishop was booked on 28 minutes for a nothing challenge on Lee Ridley as he tried to clear the ball away.
Dion Scott should have done better three minutes later when Sean Flynn's free kick fell for him in the area but he poked a weak effort straight at the Scunthorpe keeper Tommy Evans.
As the half wore on and we found it harder to make any headway the game deteriorated into a midfield mess. We couldn't seem to find any way of making a killer pass and every ball seemed to hit a Scunthorpe player and rebound to no-where.
Then came part one of the Scunny double whammy. Peter Beagrie collected the ball on his left and as he advanced on goal alarm bells should have started ringing in Adie Smiths head that he must close him down quickly and give him as little room as possible to work his trickery. Adie backed off and Beagrie unleashed a shot that both curled and flew into the far corner of the net. A goal reminiscent of Tony Curries goal for Barnet at Aggborough in our first year in the League.
A minute later it was 2-0 and again it was defensive errors that let us down.
With our defenders looking to each other Paul Hayes sent over a long cross to the totally unmarked Matt Sparrow leaving him with only Fraser Digby to beat. Fraser could only parry his fierce shot and it fell to the also unmarked Martin Carruthers to tap in an easy goal.
Scunthorpe deservedly finished the half on top and could have been further in front after a Hayes lob from Wayne Graves pass just went over the bar and then Sparrow saw his shot blocked by Diggers just before the whistle blew.