Scunthorpe are ready for their close-up

There is a first time for everything and today sees Scunthorpe United's inaugural appearance on live terrestrial television. "We've never been shown before," marvels Nigel Adkins, the Championship club's former physiotherapist, now the manager, whose team's FA Cup fourth-round date with Manchester City has even managed to coax Kevin Keegan back to the club where he started out. The former Manchester City manager, who scored 18 times in 120 games for Scunthorpe before joining Liverpool in 1970, will be a pundit for ITV this afternoon. "It's a traditional David v Goliath tie," Keegan says in today's United programme. "I've got a lot of respect for Manchester City, they are a great club, but it would be nice to see an upset." Keegan singles out Gary Hooper, Adkins's key striker, as a potential thorn in the side of Roberto Mancini's sometimes vulnerable defence. But like everyone else packing into the 9,000-capacity Glanford Park, the former England coach knows that much hinges on how many star names the Italian rests ahead of City's impending Carling Cup semi-final second leg. Then there is the question of whether, and if so how, £32m Robinho might play. Adkins has dilemmas of his own, principally involving whether to select Joe Murphy, Scunthorpe's long-standing, newly fit again, first-choice goalkeeper, or Josh Lillis. The latter has excelled as Murphy's stand-in since the New Year, when a run of decent results have suggested Scunthorpe are more than capable of pulling clear of relegation trouble. The decision is weighted with added emotion in that Lillis is the son of Mark Lillis, a former City player, who grew up supporting today's opponents and declares: "I'm still a Blue through and through." While Adkins has been practising his Italian – "Ciao," he tells reporters – ahead of welcoming Mancini to a post-match drink and tactical brain-picking, the former Internazionale coach may have had to look Scunthorpe up on a map. "Most people know Scunthorpe because we're the butt of music-hall jokes," sighs Merseyside born Adkins, who "loves" living in a village just outside the still predominantly steel town. "It's purely the name – there was talk about rebranding Scunthorpe, calling it something else a couple of years ago." The FA Cup, though, has an uncanny knack of suffusing the dowdiest of names with unprecedented glamour; not to mention narrowing the gap between rich and poor. "This competition shows that money isn't everything," explains Scunthorpe's midfielder Martyn Woolford, who is part of almost certainly the lowest-paid squad in the Championship. A lifelong Manchester United fan, Woolford has no lack of incentive today. "We've seen what Leeds and Reading have done to United and Liverpool this season and it's not impossible that we can do the same against City," he says. "Our players have got a chance to shine, to show what we can really do. I would expect all our lads to raise their game." Mancini could be in for a significant culture shock.