Andy Butler, the manager of Scunthorpe United, is steering the team towards their ambitions in the National League after a challenging but rewarding journey back to management. At 42 years of age, Butler has had a major impact since taking over as the first team coach in June 2023. He took the job offer from the club owner Michelle Harness over the phone while on holiday in Greece. His appointment followed just a week after Scunthorpe’s place as a league club was in jeopardy following a poor loss in the National League North play-off semi-final.
Butler’s professional career really started when he moved to Scunthorpe as a youth player. This chance arrived after his original club, Doncaster Rovers, released him. During his three-year stint at Scunthorpe, he developed his talents on over 150 appearances on the pitch. He was a key part of the team’s success in their promotion from League Two in 2004/05 and League One in 2006/07. Life after professional football After retiring from professional football, Butler worked as a postman in Doncaster for a short time. He then moved into a youth coaching role at Scunthorpe.
Butler’s first full season in charge of senior men’s football was a steep learning curve. He faced challenges, particularly during a difficult spell in November and December of the previous season, where he acknowledged that he could have been dismissed. During the dark days, he identifies the ownership group as the primary reason the club can now be a success story.
Under Butler, the squad has demonstrated an enormous amount of grit and mental fortitude on the field. Like last season, they have lost just nine league games out of a possible 63. At the time of writing, Scunthorpe are 6th in the National League, three points off top spot leaders Carlisle with a game in hand. This position is a huge leap in the right direction compared to recent seasons and is a testament to Butler’s strong guidance.
“Right now we’re in a good position, and we’ve already surpassed what we got last time in this division, so we’ve done pretty well. But it could easily change. We could lose 13 in a row. I’m happy with how it started, but I still think there’s room to improve.” – Andy Butler
Butler approaches his managerial role with humility. Rather than marching directly to the microphone like other managers and gloating about the victory, sometimes with childlike glee, he focuses instead on thanking the players who got them there. His goal, as always, is to stay the course and avoid being carried off by the exuberance of a first big score.
“You see other managers giving three fist pumps to the crowd – I did that once after the first game against Brackley and I’ll never do it again, because football turns like that. For me, now it’s more, stand back, acknowledge and let the players take the plaudits because they’re the ones doing it.” – Andy Butler
With the new season fully underway, Butler is happy to look back on last year’s promotion. He thinks the timing was right and better than if it had come out sooner, for example. He understood that the club wasn’t in the right place for a quick promotion from League Two at this moment.
“I don’t think the club was actually in a position to go up anyway. It’d have been too quick.” – Andy Butler
Butler’s deepest strength is his holistic grasp of his unit and what they can and cannot do. He seemed pretty confident in their ability after what he thought was a great recruiting process in the summer.
“I always had a little internal feeling we’d do well, because I know the players. I think we recruited pretty well in the summer as well, so I thought we’d give ourselves a good chance,” – Andy Butler
Butler is quick to give credit for the club’s newfound optimism. He remains laser-focused on the brutal competition in the National League. He pointed out that all but all of the other teams have much bigger budgets compared to Scunthorpe, which makes their dreams even more difficult.
“There are some big clubs in this division who have got massive budgets – I mean, four times the budgets we’ve got. I was speaking to an EFL manager recently and a couple of teams in this division are blowing EFL clubs out of the water, wages-wise, so that’s what you’ve got to compete with in this division.” – Andy Butler
Looking back on his transformation from player to manager, Butler’s journey prepared him to impact players in more ways than one. His time as a postman taught him valuable lessons about hard work and determination. Qualities he now instills in his players.
“It just showed me how hard people work in part-time football.” – Andy Butler
It’s a good place to be.” As the season unfolds, Butler makes no apologies for dreaming about what success could potentially look like for Scunthorpe. The possibility of back-to-back promotions must be a tantalizing thought for him and his team.
“I have three-second dreams about it – until the reality hits home that it’s going to be tough!” – Andy Butler
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