Recent results favour visitors

ATHLETIC head to relegation-threatened Scunthorpe buoyed by an excellent recent record at Glanford Park.

In the Iron’s first season back in League One last term, twice Paul Dickov’s men embarked on the trek to North Lincolnshire — and on both occasions, returned with victories.

Matt Smith’s late goal, which followed up an excellent early strike from David Mellor, helped Athletic to a 2-1 victory in August of last year.

And Shefki Kuqi’s only strike of the game repeated the feat a couple of months later to spark the run in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy which almost brought about a trip to Wembley for the club.

recovered

Cliff Byrne didn’t feature in either of those two games — though he was in the Scunthorpe team which saw off visiting Athletic a year earlier, in only Dickov’s second match at the helm at Boundary Park.

The Iron, then a Championship outfit, recovered from conceding a goal to Djeny Bembo to run out 2-1 winners in the Carling Cup tie.

This clash represents 30-year-old Dubliner Byrne’s first return to Glanford Park since departing in the summer.

In total the defender, who had a testimonial game earlier this season, spent nine years at the club and racked up 316 appearances.