by Keith » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:28 am
Just got back. A strangely entertaining game. I can't see Grimsby going down. Their forwards attack well (or at least, very quickly). Their defence defend... really badly!
We were very poor in the first half, struggling to string a few passes together and tackling without conviction. Grimsby deservedly went in front after a very soft pass from Drummie to no-one in particular was picked up by Grimsby in the midfield. They again attacked with pace and we again left Roche entirely unprotected. I say "again" because they had a dry run of their goal only a couple of minutes earlier, only the first time, they hit the post.
I have no idea why the Grimsby fans who were directly next to the red card incident were booing the ref! Obviously "you don't know what you're doing" ringing out from the rest of their fans could be put down to partisanship, but surely anyone with any understanding of the game knows that a two footed lunge is dangerous and will result in a red card. Taking the ball is irrelevant if you also take the man.
So down to ten men we obviously... carried on as before... dreadfully! Only by now we thought that we should be doing better. When I say "we", I mean the 24(ish) Morecambe fans because Sammy clearly felt we were doing okay and leaving things the same was the best thing to (not) do.
So when they got their second... you really had to say they deserved it! Yup, "we've only got ten men" as their second was scored could only really be answered by "yes, but we're shit". 2-0 down and 'they've only got ten men' was at last the signal for a change. Duffy on, 4-4-2 at last and we started to claw our way back in to the game. The Great Escape was being chanted by the non-Man Utd Grimsby fans at the far end. That was cut short following a lovely cross and Twissy met the ball with a firm header. A 'strong leading arm' would have been reason to rule that out for many refs, although to be fair, he was consistent in not blowing for 'a bit of a tussle', but mine wasn't the only pair of eyes to look to the ref to see what he decision was. 2-1 and perhaps...
By now, only one team was likely to score again... but they fluffed their chance to go 3-1 up! Some how Grimsby had got us 'battling' for every ball rather than using our extra man and space. Fortunately, we got back to playing the ball around just in time. I'm delighted O'Carroll got a goal for his rare start but if you were a Grimsby fan, you'd really feel that it was a soft one to concede. A few chances to clear were wasted before the ball pinballed out to the lad who struck a pretty tame shot that some how squirmed past everyone. 2-2 and something we'd not really expected 30 minutes earlier.
At last, we really began to click. More pressure... could we snatch all three points? Ooh, it was almost getting exciting! A series of corners that led to the ball coming out to Gary Hunter about 25 yards out. You could see from his body language he was going to volley this one...
...and how!!! Sweet, hard, fast, accurate... straight in to the top corner!!! We went wild, they went home! A superb goal from a player who had struggled to make any impact on the game (not that he was the only one). 2-3 and only a minute or so, plus time added on.
If I was a fair man, I'd say Grimsby deserved a point towards their not-playing-Conference-football-next-season total, and so I kind of felt sorry for them when we stole the game... for a second or too... before we burst in to we're going up, we're going up, Morecambe's going up...
Back to back away wins in front of a combined total of less than 100 Morecambe fans, which is a shame... Ned, where were you???
“Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband: ".
David Cameron. May 4th 2015.
So how did that work out then?