Barnsley will tomorrow come up against a club with their former manager and general manager in charge but few players to choose from.
Mark Robins took over as Scunthorpe United boss last month while Don Rowing returned to his former club in the summer on a part-time basis a year after retiring as general manager at Oakwell. Rowing spent almost a decade with Barnsley and the Reds were relegated the season after he left.
"I was sad to see Barnsley go down but it was always a possibility with the budget they had compared to the rest of the Championship," said Rowing, who will not attend the match tomorrow. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I'm proud of the tight ship we ran."
Rowing, who is helping Scunthorpe plan a new stadium, was involved in the appointment of Robins at Oakwell and has been reunited with the manager at Glanford Park.
Rowing said: "Mark is a terrific manager and he has given the club a real boost. We are hoping to get promoted like every club in League One but it will be a long-term plan as there are bigger clubs around like Barnsley."
Robins came to Oakwell from Rotherham United in September 2009 but left due to a dispute over budget at the end of the 2010/11 season after managing Barnsley for 92 games and keeping them in the Championship twice with weeks to spare. After a brief spell with Coventry, he joined Huddersfield last year but was sacked following a 4-0 loss to Bournemouth on the opening day of this season.
He is now at Scunthorpe where Russ Wilcox set an alleged world record of 29 games unbeaten last season after taking over from Brian Laws and led the Iron to promotion from League Two. But Wilcox was dismissed after picking up seven points in their first 11 matches this season.
Robins has not been able to move the Iron up the table from second bottom in six matches so far but oversaw a shock win at Peterborough followed by an FA Cup success at Forest Green and has only been beaten once in his six games. Scunthorpe were 2-0 up with minutes to play at Crawley on Saturday but were pegged back and drew 2-2.
Current Reds boss Danny Wilson, who had Robins as a player at Bristol City more than a decade ago, said: "It's a very tough game. Their position in the league is false. I watched them against Crawley and they controlled the game. But they couldn't see the game out which is similar to us at times.
"I am positive Mark will want to do well against Barnsley. He's got Scunthorpe working very hard and defending well. We've faced a lot of teams like that this season."
Scunthorpe currently have eight players out through injury and suspension while former Sheffield Wednesday centre-back Miguel Llera is almost certain to miss the match with an ankle problem. The Iron were searching for a defender before yesterday's loan deadline and brought in Chelsea youngster Alex Davey who is likely to start.
