Eastleigh begin the month on the road as they travel to Glanford Park to face Scunthorpe United in the 35th matchday of the Vanarama National League on Saturday 4th March with a 3pm kick-off. Preview in association with Unibet.
Scunthorpe United:
Scunthorpe played out a 1-1 draw with relegation rivals Maidstone United in midweek, which did little to help either of the bottom two sides in the Vanarama National League.
However, Jacob Butterfield’s equaliser two minutes into the second half did ensure the Iron maintained the three-point gap to the root of the table.
Yet Scunthorpe remain six points adrift from safety in 23rd position with just 12 matches left, having also played at least one game more than the four teams directly above them in the table.
Although, the Iron have kept themselves in contention for safety by losing just four of their last nine matches and picking up 11 points in that period.
Scunthorpe’s two top scorers this season no longer play in their colours as Joe Nuttall netted nine goals before leaving for Oldham in December and Caolan Lavery bagged eight goals before heading to Doncaster Rovers in January.
Butterfield is the highest scorer in the current Iron squad having scored his fourth goal of the season last time out.
Eastleigh:
The Spitfires’ continued their fine run of form by moving to six matches unbeaten with a 1-0 victory over York City in midweek.
Michael Kelly returned from injury and marked the occasion with a sublime free-kick to earn Eastleigh another three points.
The Spitfires have picked up 16 points from a possible 18 in their unbeaten streak, which has propelled Eastleigh into sixth position, two points and two places inside the play-off places.
A charge for the play-offs has been aided by winning three consecutive away matches but the Spitfires will be without Corey Panter, who serves the second of a three-match suspension having been shown the red card against Bromley.
However, the defence remains a major weapon after George Langston and Aaron Martin came into the heart of the defence to help the Spitfires keep their 13th clean sheet of the league campaign last time out.
At the other end of the pitch, Danny Whitehall tops Eastleigh’s goal-scoring charts, having netted 12 times so far in this campaign.
Fixture History:
This is the first time Eastleigh have ever travelled to Glanford Park as it is the first-ever National League season Scunthorpe United have competed in during their 124-year history.
The Iron will be looking to avoid back-to-back relegations having finished bottom of the pile in League Two last season, however, to do so will need to begin by rectifying the reverse fixture on November 1st in the first-ever meeting between the two teams, where a Vincent Harper brace ensured a 2-0 victory for Eastleigh.
By Sajidur Rahman
