A rather shocking start to the season, which included losses to Burton, Wigan, Blackpool, Rochdale, Southend and Walsall saw Scunthorpe lingering around the bottom of the table at the end of September. In those first ten league games, Scnuthorpe won only two, against Crewe and Coventry. However, a recent surge of good form has seen them rise up to 16th. In their last four games, they have beaten Fleetwood 1-0, Oldham 4-2, and Shrewsbury 2-1. However, they did lose 2-1 to league leaders Gillingham on Tuesday, while we were enjoying our 3-0 win over Southend. Their cup form has been very Spireites esker, not winning one game. In the league cup, they were knocked out by Barnsley in the first round, the dingles winning 7-6 on penalties. In the JPT, they lost to Barnsley yet again, this time with the south Yorkshire side winning 2-1 in normal time.
Evatt is the only player out tomorrow (other than Angel), due to picking up too many yellows. Chris Herd is available despite worries that he could also be suspended, which is a bonus considering his quality performances in the last few games. There are no other absentees or worries for tomorrow, and Saunders could go for exactly the same squad as Tuesday, except with Hird in CB rather than Evatt. Novak, Blake and Morsy all had fantastic games on Tuesday, so I would be shocked if they didn't start tomorrow, however Saunders has the choice to swap either O'Shea or Gardner with Simons, but I doubt he'll change much from earlier in the week. Saying that, Talbot had another suspect performance on Tuesday, looking behind the pace of the game, and Saunders may choose to draft Herd into RB then put O'Niel in midfield with Morsy. Darius Henderson, Stephen Dawson, Jamie Ness and Niall Canavan are all unavailable for Mark Robins' squad tomorrow.
Biggest threat: Paddy Madden
Madden is Scunthorpe's top scorer at the moment on seven, and is also the league's joint second top scorer along with the likes of Sheff Utd's Billy Sharp and Bury's Leon Clarke. He has played a massive part in Scunthorpe's recent run of form, scoring the winners against Fleetwood and Shrewsbury, then also netting in the win over Oldham. Other Scunthorpe players who could cause us problems tomorrow are former Spireite winger Gary McSheffrey, who is on two goals so far this season, and also Scott Laird, who has bagged two in his last two games.
My score prediction: Chesterfield 3-1 Scunthorpe
Tomorrow will be by no means easy, but I think we'll come away with all three points. Blake looks so dangerous currently, and with the quality of Novak's play, and the players in the midfield, I think the service to him will be non stop tomorrow, just like it was on Tuesday night. The confidence in the team is definitely back, however I feel Evatt's suspension could leave a big hole in the defence, which Scunthorpe will be eager to exploit. While Scunthorpe have won three of their last four, on paper their results haven't really been anything special. They lost to Gillingham on Tuesday, they just scraped wins over struggling Shrewsbury and Fleetwood, and their 4-2 win over Oldham wasn't really much more than mediocre, so I am fully confident that we will grab a win tomorrow based on the recent form of the two sides.
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