The fall of Scunthorpe United

Just over three years ago Scunthorpe United had just appeared in their second straight league one play off campaign after finishing 3rd and 5th in the league and were looking to be on the verge of the championship but now three years later they sit bottom of the football league after being thumped 6-1 at Harrogate Town, what happened here?

Well a lot of the blame from the fans has been aimed at the chairman Peter Swann.

after finishing 5th in 2017-18 the club lost a lot of it’s best players including Duane Holmes, Murray Wallace and Hakeeb Adelakun, a big slump followed and they were relegated second bottom of the league, they were expected to push for an immediate return to League one under new manager Paul Hurst but instead they were in danger of a second straight relegation and non-league football, Hurst was sacked in January and caretaker manager Russ Wilcox steered them to safety in 21st place.

The next season under boyhood fan Neil Cox wasn’t much better as they again finished in 21st placed just above the relegation zone but they at least had something to smile about as rivals Grimsby were relegated in last place, Swann kept faith in Cox ahead of this season and recently said that Scunthorpe fans should “downgrade their expectations because of covid” but the unrest amongst the fans has only increased as the team have made a dreadful start to the season which was compounded by the performance at Harrogate and they have well and truly hit rock bottom, non-league football for the first time since 1950 is looking a real possibility for the Iron.