First-half goals from Quevin Castro, Jim O'Brien and Macaulay Langstaff, along with an emphatic finish from Cedwyn Scott, guided us to a comfortable victory at Glanford Park as we returned to the top of the league.
Despite Caolan Lavery giving the hosts the lead with a goal out of the blue, there was never any genuine concern and fine finishes from the aforementioned quartet were more than enough to earn us the victory.
Luke Williams shuffled his pack in midfield, handing O’Brien his long-awaited return from injury and welcoming Castro back into his starting XI in a move which meant Sam Austin and Cedwyn Scott had to settle for a place on the bench.
In the continued absence of Aaron Nemane, Tobi Adebayo-Rowling continued in right wing back and he would prove to be a terrific outlet throughout the first half with our early attacks both coming via link-ups between him and Ruben Rodrigues.
The Portuguese playmaker claimed our first shot of the day on six minutes after neat footwork from Castro presented him with the ball 20 yards out, but the ball rolled wide of the near post.
Richard Brindley was the next to have a go, cutting across the bouncing ball and watching his 25-yard effort drift narrowly wide.
We had enjoyed near-total domination of the opening exchanges but were caught on the break on 19 minutes when Lavery found himself in too much space to finish low beyond former Scunny man Sam Slocombe.
There was no panic, however, and we were back on terms four minutes later when Rodrigues laid the ball off for Castro in the area. The West Brom loanee stroked the ball calmly into the bottom corner.
We resumed our pursuit of the lead and were cursing an excellent George Taft clearance, to deny Langstaff scoring from Adebayo-Rowling’s cross, and a good save from Marcus Dewhurst to keep out Rodrigues’ goalbound free-kick.
But, on 32 minutes, we had the lead we deserved when Castro rolled the ball to O’Brien 25 yards out. The Scot produced an excellent low strike to pick out the bottom corner.
And, shortly after Castro couldn’t find the target with a left-footed effort, we had a third when O’Brien’s deflected shot was parried straight to Langstaff by Dewhurst. The striker did well to guide his volley beyond the keeper to give us a two-goal cushion at the break.
Scunthorpe needed a big response after the break and could have had one within seconds of the restart when we failed to deal with a ball into our box, presenting Lavery with a chance from a narrow angle which he’ll have been disappointed to drag well wide.
It would prove to be a much quieter second half, Castro and O’Brien making way for Sam Austin and Ed Francis, before the other scorer, Langstaff, came inches away from adding our fourth before himself being replaced by Scott.
The chance came on 75 minutes when Rodrigues did brilliantly to flick a looping ball towards the striker from the byline. Langstaff looked set to turn it home, only for a defender to make a crucial challenge.
We had another sniff shortly afterwards when Adam Chicksen did brilliantly to get to the byline and square for Rodrigues, but the Portuguese couldn’t find a way through a crowd of bodies to score.
The fourth wasn’t to evade us, though, and it came thanks to Scott who produced an emphatic finish from close range after Matt Palmer’s shot had been blocked by a defender.
STARTING XI: Slocombe; Cameron, Baldwin, Brindley; Chicksen, Adebayo-Rowling; Palmer, Rodrigues, O'Brien (Francis 67'), Castro (Austin 54'); Langstaff (Scott 76')
SUBS: Bajrami, Mitchell
ATTENDANCE: 4,196 (1,411)
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