City 3 Scunthorpe 1.

Hands up who tipped Robbie Fowler to come away from Saturday's game with the match ball tucked under his arm?
Hands up who thought he'd even make the starting line-up?
Certainly not me, especially after a 'source' reported seeing Fowler tucking into a hearty portion of chilli and rice in the players lounge moments after the Tottenham game before getting off sharpish.

However, rather than tinkering with his line-up to rest a couple of players ahead of the derby, Cole and Vassell paid the price for the recent lack of goals with Fowler and Sibierski starting up front in a move which must have left Bradley Wright-Phillips wondering what he needs to do to get a starting role.


In my preview, I wrote 'I can't help thinking that we will undoubtedly make hard work of it in some way', and true to form we managed to go a goal down to an Andy Keogh strike. But the second half was turned around completely with an eighteen minute hat-trick, with the second strike in particular being vintage Fowler and the third a reminder of how to slot home a penalty (see Middlesbrough game).
Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws in particular, praised Fowlers all round movement and the way in which he dropped off the defenders, saying 'he kept dropping into areas where our centre halves did not want to be and we couldn't cope'.


Pearce inevitably spent most of the post game interviews fielding questions on Fowlers future and stated that he wouldn't be leaving the club during the January transfer window, and hinted that he may even have a future at the club beyond when his contract expires this summer.
Whilst that may be looking a touch too much into the future, it was a timely performance from Fowler ahead of the derby and I would have thought he is now a cert for one of the striking positions, and leaving Cole and Vassell sweating over their places.

Match reports:

BBC Sport
Sky Sports
Scunthorpe United mad