Too Many Blunders at Blundell Park
Morecambe travelled coast-to-coast today in order to face another football club based in a seaside resort; in this case: Cleethorpes. They did so to take-on another team under interim management for the second game in a row. Last Saturday, they overcame temporary boss Tom Shaw’s Lincoln City; coming from behind to dump his League One side out of the FA Cup by two goals to one. Seven days later, they would be lining-up against a team which is at least temporarily being managed by two men. Long-term Grimsby Manager Paul Hurst was sacked just over a week ago after the Mariners had lost four league games in a row. Previous First Team Head Coaches Shaun Pearson and Ben Davies have taken up the reins at Blundell Park. In their sole game (no fishy, Grimsby-related pun intended) in charge so far they finally managed to draw with National League South club Slough 1-1-last Saturday, having been behind for most of the match.
Slough are in the relegation places in their own league – and Grimsby’s position near the bottom of League Two must worry everybody connected to the club. The Mariners have the unenviable distinction of being one of only three clubs that I can think of (Macclesfield and Lincoln being the other two) to have been relegated out of the EFL twice – and then come back again. As things stand at the moment though, all Town fans must be nervously looking over their shoulders towards the struggle at the bottom of League Two. Grimsby are only four points clear of Tranmere and Sutton United – who are propping-up everyone else in the Football League. Directly beneath Town are Forest Green Rovers, who are just one point behind them with a game in hand. So victory for them today would at least put a little bit of blue water between themselves and the Legion of the Damned in the Basement of the EFL. Defeat could see them down there amongst them, depending on results elsewhere.
Grimsby’s fortunes both on and off the field are the stuff of nightmares in recent times. According to the UK Government (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00034760/officers) nearly all their directors (35 out of 40 including former Manager Ian Holloway) have resigned from the Board during the last twenty-five years or so. However, two businessmen registered in London – one of them called Jason – have taken over the club. Sound familiar at all? They have overseen the Mariners’ return to the EFL after just one season in the National League: their victory at much-fancied Wrexham in the Play-Off Semi-Final the outstanding result of the entire season just over a year ago. First year back in the EFL (last); they finished a creditable eleventh in League Two. But they also reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup, having beaten supposedly much bigger clubs such as Luton Town and Southampton along the way. All of this was achieved under the leadership of Paul Hurst: the man who also led them back to the EFL following the first time they were relegated. Without any disrespect intended to Shaun Pearson or Ben Davies, it will be interesting to see if Mariners’ fans at least regret his departure when the end of the season finally comes around…
But for now, Shaun Pearson had this to say prior to the game:
“There’s a few things that we’ve looked at. I think that’s the challenge for us as a group at the minute: how do we deal with difficult moments in the game better, basically. Confidence plays a massive part in that. You can’t just walk round and give everyone confidence – that’s impossible. We have to try and create an environment and a structure and things like that where they can get confidence from and then hopefully we will see improvements as soon as possible: obviously that’s what we need.”
As far as Morecambe are concerned, he added:
“It will be really difficult. They have a good manager. They have some good individual players. They are well organised; get everything behind the ball and they carry a threat in certain situations. They show what you can be in this division: at the minute, they are mixing it with the heavyweights so to speak: they are bang in there and doing really well. (In) the form guide, I think there’s only Wrexham and Stockport above them. It shows the challenge that’s ahead. Morecambe might not be a glamorous name as some as the ones – for example Wrexham with the owners and things like that – but they are keeping speed with them. We are not only three or four games in; we’re sixteen games into the season so I think that shows how difficult the challenge is on Saturday.”
The Shrimps have a good record against Grimsby in recent times: three wins on the spin. In all competitions, they have beaten Town nine times in 21 games and lost only five. In League Two generally, their record is just one defeat and four wins home and away in their last five matches. They will also be buoyed by their well-deserved 1-2 victory against supposedly superior opposition last Saturday elsewhere in Lincolnshire. Manager Derek Adams had this to say about Grimsby before today’s encounter:
“They haven’t got a Manager at this moment in time. We understand that they drew in the FA Cup, which was a good draw away from home. But they have a very good squad in place. I think we’ve won four out of the last five away from home. We have got to be confident in the way we are playing. To go away from home to some difficult places, (the players) have showed great character.”
King Derek – nominated for EFL Manager of the Month earlier in the week – included young Adam Mayor again in today’s line-up. Adam was awarded the prestigious Rising Star trophy by football paper The Athletic at a ceremony at Old Trafford last Monday night, beating Manchester City stars and other outstanding prospects in so doing. I think we all feel it is inevitable – like Carlos Mendes-Gomes; Sam Lavelle; Tom Barkhuizen; Garry Thompson and too many others to mention – that Adam will be bought by a bigger club sooner probably than later. Winning awards such as this, though, bumps-up the fee that should come Morecambe’s way if and when this happens. It’s also a tribute – most of all – to the young man himself but also to the way he has been coached at Morecambe – and particularly by Derek Adams, who was present at the ceremony.
Mr Adams said this about his rising star:
“He is an asset to the club. He’s here for another year and a half under contract. There are a lot of clubs that are interested in him. The club have got a valuation on him. Nothing has been met. Every player does have his valuation. If someone comes in and offers what the club feels is the value for him, they’ll surely accept it. I think that was the same for Carlos last time (and) Sam Lavelle. We got good value for them but as a Manager, I would like to keep him as long as I can.”
For Grimsby, there was no place in the squad for our old pal Arthur Gnahoua, who has featured twelve times in Grimsby’s matches so far, almost half of them in the starting line-up. There was no place in the Morecambe line-up for Skipper Donald Love either probably because of injury.
It was a beautiful sunny day in north Lancashire today, albeit a bit nippy. But on the east coast in Lincolnshire, it was sunny too but also a couple of degrees warmer.
On the actual anniversary of the First World War Armistice, the Last Post was sounded before kick-off by a trio of female buglers as the whole crowd impeccably respected a one minute’s silence to commemorate all servicemen and women who have died in various wars over the years.
It was a dream start for the visitors. Goalkeeper Adam Smith launched the ball upfield; the Grimsby defence failed to clear it and JJ McKiernan took advantage to play-in Boy Wonder Adam Mayor, who slipped it under advancing Town stopper Harvey Cartwright to put the Shrimps one goal to the good. Only sixty-eight seconds were on the clock when this happened.
Grimsby won a number of corners in quick succession after this, from one of which Kieran Green’s header went just wide of the target after seven minutes. At the other end, Cartwright was quick off his line to bravely smother another attempt at Mayor’s feet with thirteen minutes played. Otis Khan was the first player to be shown a yellow card after a quarter of an hour when he was booked for dissent. Morecambe were perhaps lucky in the nineteenth minute when the Mariners attacked down their left in the shape of Jamie Andrews. He sent over a lovely low cross which Gavan Holohan couldn’t quite connect with properly and his shot went wide. As the home team ramped-up the pressure, Smith was forced into two smart saves in the 20th and 22nd minutes. First, he pushed a shot from Khan from within the Morecambe penalty area away for a corner. Then he did really well when he turned another effort by Khan from further out onto his own post, from where it bounced away to safety.
Morecambe broke away in the 27th minute but Michael Mellon’s progress was stopped in its tracks by an excellently- timed tackle by Harvey Rodgers. At the other end, Grimsby again attacked down their left flank and created a chance after half an hour with another dangerous cross which Smith did well to deal with once more. Straight away, his Opposite Number was in action at the other end, saving another effort from Mayor after a clever bit of play by Jordan Slew. Grimsby then won a free-kick in the 44th minute. Anthony Driscoll-Glennon took it but Niall Meher’s flick-on at the near post eluded all his team-mates and went out for a goal-kick. Mariners’ Skipper Danny Rose then headed a cross from Holohan over the bar after Slew had missed with a long-range effort in injury time at the other end. Joel Senior was hurt when he was hit on the head by a free-kick for the hosts right at the death. That was the last action of the half. So Morecambe went back to the Dressing Rooms with a very slender, early lead. Grimsby then took control of the game and looked quite lively going forward. However, Morecambe contained them reasonably well and when they counter-attacked, Town always looked shaky at the back. So it would be interesting to see what would happen in the second period…
Derek shook things up at half time by replacing James Connolly and Tom Bloxham with defenders Yann Songo’o and Farrend Rawson. The changes quickly came unstuck, though. Grimsby kicked-off and immediately went onto the attack. Within two minutes, Smith was forced to pull-off an excellent save low to his left after Glennon had made another good run and Rose took a tremendous shot at goal. From the resulting corner, though, the Morecambe goalkeeper was at fault when he dropped the ball at his near post and an acrobatic Rose managed to force it over the line to equalise. The game was completely turned on its head only a minute later when a free-kick was headed-on by Rose near to the target for Green to smash the ball home from close range. Having recovered from the body-blow; Morecambe fashioned the next half-chance as Slew sent a shot narrowly over the bar with 57 minutes played. But the Shrimps almost immediately fell even further behind as Glennon sent over another dangerous cross and Pyke turned it home from very close in. This was with just under an hour played. Eli King was then caught in possession and Smith atoned for his earlier blunder with a tremendous save in the 63rd minute from Pyke at the cost of a corner. Morecambe had the next chance though as the home defence again failed to clear the ball in the sixty-sixth minute and Slew was presented with another opportunity to reduce the arrears but he was thwarted by an outstanding save at full stretch by the home custodian at the cost of a corner. Rose then tried and failed to chip Smith from the half way line with almost eighty minutes on the clock. Morecambe enjoyed a bit more of the possession as the match grew older and JJ got the ball in the net to reduce the arrears in the eighty-sixth minute following an excellent cross from the right by Slew. In injury time, King forced Cartwright into a save with his legs. Then substitute Yann Songo’o headed straight at the keeper in the 93rd minute. As the home crowd fell suddenly silent, sub Ethan Walker made a complete mess of an attempt to equalise with the game in its death throes. JJ was then flattened by Mariners’ replacement Alex Hunt right at the death but the free-kick by Mayor came to nothing.
So it was a False Dawn for Morecambe today. Having gone ahead early on, they were second best for all of the first half and most of the second. Grimsby didn’t look like a team facing relegation whenever they were on the attack but at the back, they always looked vulnerable. Sadly for the visitors, they were not able to expose this weakness until the later stages of the match, when it was far too late. Despite the deserved win for the Mariners, they remained in 21st position in League Two tonight. Morecambe’s disappointing display for the second league match in a row saw them slip to seventh place – but still in the Play-Off positions. They won’t play next Saturday due to more international call-ups but they are still well-placed for a promotion push as things stand this evening. As ever, the boss was brutally honest after the game in his appraisal of what had just happened:
“We got off to the perfect start. That gave us a lot of confidence. That first period then swung Grimsby’s way. I thought that they created the better openings in the first period – a lot of good chances. They certainly could have gone in ahead at half time with the chances that they did create. From that point of view, it wasn’t a good afternoon for us. We didn’t play well enough this afternoon. I thought that Grimsby deserved to win. We got Grimsby on the wrong day today. We just didn’t do well enough over the afternoon. We made the substitutions to solidify (but) that didn’t work.”
Grimsby Town: 1 Harvey Cartwright; 3 Anthony Driscoll-Glennon (29 Alex Hunt (Y) 81’); 4 Kieran Green; 5 Harvey Rodgers (15 Harry Clifton 58’); 8 Gavan Holohan (Y); 9 Rekeil Pyke (25 Donovan Wilson 81’); 11 Otis Khan (Y) (7 Abobaker Eisa 72’); 19 Jamie Andrews; 28 Toby Mullarkey; 31 Niall Meher; 32 Danny Rose (C).
Substitutes not used: 12 Jake Eastwood; 6 Luke Waterfall; 42 Kamil Conteh.
Morecambe: 21 Adam Smith; 3 David Tutonda (Y) (19 Ethan Walker 85’); 4 Jacob Bedeau (C) (16 Jacob Davenport 85’); 7 Tom Bloxham (6 Yann Songo’o 45’); 8 Eli King; 9 Michael Mellon; 10 JJ McKiernan; 11 Adam Mayor 12 Joel Senior; 14 Jordan Slew (23 Max Melbourne 90’); 22 James Connolly (5 Farrend Rawson 45’).
Substitutes not used: 26 George Pedley; 17 Cammy Smith; 20 Charlie Brown.
Ref: Alan Young.
Att: 5,939 (139 from Morecambe.)
