Claim: Jordan Spence plays football.

Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe , North Lincolnshire , England . The team play in League One , the third tier of the English football league system .   The team is nicknamed The Iron , and has played in a home strip of claret and blue for most of its history . It plays its home games at Glanford Park , having moved from the Old Show Ground in 1988 . Grimsby Town , Hull City , Doncaster Rovers , Lincoln City and York City are its main rivals , although of these clubs only Doncaster Rovers currently play in the same division as Scunthorpe .   The club was formed in 1899 , turned professional in 1912 and joined the Football League in 1950 . It achieved promotion to Division Two in 1958 , where it stayed until 1964 , but has spent most of its time as a Football League club in the basement tier . The club has had more success recently , however : it was promoted from Football League Two in 2005 , and then spent three out of four seasons from 2007 in the Football League Championship . The Iron were relegated to Football League One in 2011 , having finished bottom of the Championship . The club then suffered a further blow , being relegated to Football League Two in 2013 , however it was fortunate enough to immediately bounce back , winning promotion back to the third tier at the end of the 2013 -- 14 season .   In recent years , the club has developed a reputation for developing promising young strikers , having sold Billy Sharp , Martin Paterson and Gary Hooper on for seven-figure sums . The club was also considered one of the most financially prudent in English football , being one of only three in the top four divisions to be debt-free . This status has recently changed after it was announced that a # 2 million loan from the outgoing chairman Steve Wharton was on the accounts to help the club maintain some sense of financial stability .   Scunthorpe United was also the first club in England to build a cantilever stand after their old East stand burnt down in 1959 , four years before Sheffield Wednesday constructed its cantilever stand at Hillsborough .