Woolford has Newcastle floundering

Martyn Woolford gave Newcastle an untimely reminder of how hard life outside the Premier League can be, as his double condemned them to a 2-1 defeat at Scunthorpe last night. The winger struck in the 53rd and 79th minutes, either side of a Kevin Nolan equaliser, to ensure Chris Hughton's side failed one of the acid tests of life in the Championship – a wet Tuesday at Glanford Park.

Newcastle's winless run now stands at four games, with their latest defeat coming 13 years to the day that Kevin Keegan's swashbuckling side famously beat Manchester United 5-0.

Nigel Adkins' unfancied Scunthorpe side were more than worthy of the win, though, as they overcame a handful of early wobbles to earn a famous victory in the first League meeting between the two in 45 years.

Newcastle started smoothly, but Scunthorpe worked their way into the contest and were unlucky not to take a lead into half-time. To the delight of a record Glanford Park crowd of 8,921, Scunthorpe opened the scoring 53 minutes in, with Woolford finding his range after latching onto a cross from Gary Hooper.

Nolan equalised for Newcastle with 25 minutes to go, timing his run perfectly to hammer home into the bottom corner after a break from Danny Guthrie created the chance.

But Scunthorpe were not to be denied, and a winner came 11 minutes from the end when Woolford got on the end of Sam Togwell's header to waltz through Newcastle's defence, leaving Steve Harper with no chance.

Scunthorpe (4-3-3): Murphy; Byrne, Jones, Mirfin, Williams; Togwell, McCann (Andrew Wright, 90), Josh Wright; Woolford (Thompson, 89), Hayes, Hooper (Forte, 78). Substitutes not used: Slocombe, Spence, Canavan, Sparrow.

Newcastle (4-4-1-1): Harper; Ryan Taylor, Khizanishvili, Simpson, Jose Enrique; Guthrie (Ranger, 86), Geremi (Harewood, 61), Smith, Gutierrez; Nolan; Carroll. Substitutes not used: Krul, Tozer, Kadar, Lovenkrands, Donaldson.

Referee: A Penn (W Midlands)