‘So, what are you looking at to get out … you know, how much?” Michelle Harness asked the question out of duty, desperation and numerous other powerful emotions. Her beloved Scunthorpe United had moved to the edge of the abyss under the ownership of David Hilton; in a death roll with more than £1.2m of debt, facing a winding-up petition from HMRC and eviction from their Glanford Park stadium, which remained in the hands of Hilton’s predecessor, Peter Swann. It was the subject of a bitter dispute between the pair.
Now, as the club counted down to the home game against Brackley Town on 7 October 2023 in the National League North – English football’s sixth tier and a level far removed from where Scunthorpe have always seen themselves – there was another problem and it surely spelled the end. The players were about to go on strike.
