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Grimsby Town |
| There can’t be many longer trips for Mariners fans this season, but those making the effort will do so in the knowledge that Rovers has been a happy hunting ground (or should that be trawling ground?) for them in recentish years. They’ve only been to the Mem once and that was a Friday night in December back in 1997 (top marks to the blazer at the Football League who came up with that one). The brave 97 (yes, that’s ninety-seven) who made the trip had a whale of a time. They thrashed us 4-0 in front of 4801 people. The last time they played us at home prior to that was at Twerton Park in 1992 and their fans had a similarly good day out as their team cruised to a 3-0 win while the season before that they also scored three, that time to Rovers’ two. In fact, you have to go back to 87/88 to find the last time Rovers beat the fishy people on home territory … |
| How are they doing? |
They’ve dropped like a stone in recent seasons with successive relegations in 2002/3 and 2003/4 and they’ve had a mixed season so far with a high of seventh place and low of twenty-first - and that in the space of five games! Manager Russell Slade, who joined from Scarborough in May, didn't seem to be overly popular earlier in the season but a recent improvement in results seems to have led to the locals warming to him. Grimsby’s last league game was also down this way just over a week ago when they won 3-2 at Cheltenham in a Friday night game. |
Anyone to look out for? |
| Michael Reddy (the man who was previously “Mr On Loan” when he was at Sunderland with no less than 5 loan clubs) had an indifferent start to his Grimsby career and, like Slade, many fans were ambivalent at best towards him. The arrival of 6’ 1” Martin Gritton from Torquay in December, combined with Reddy finally regaining full fitness after a serious knee injury, seems to have led to his finally finding some form. |
| He likes to have a go! |
| Frenchman Thomas Pinault is the Mariners top scorer this season with seven. Reddy has five to date, while new boy Gritton has two. |
| Sheedhead Alert |
| Sadly all the former Sheedheads seem to have slunk away. Colin Cramb was on their books until January but has now gone northwards to Hamilton while Darren Barnard left last summer. Shame. |
| What about Rovers connections? |
| ‘Keeper Anthony Williams had a spell on loan at Rovers in 1999 (and looking at comments on messageboards we’re not sure he’s improved too much) while our own Stuart Campbell was signed from Grimsby in the summer. We also got Simon Ford from them but he has, of course, since moved on. |
| Any rivals? |
| Scunthorpe are Grimsby’s nearest neighbours in North Lincs and in November the sides met in the League for the first time in almost fifteen years. Scunny ended up the 2-0 victors and that, added to their successes this season must be rather hard to stomach for the fishy people. Still, at least Grimsby’s recent rise up a few places has coincided with the Iron slipping all the way down to third. On second thoughts, that’s probably not a huge comfort. |
| Last time we met? |
| Bet you can’t guess. Oh go on then, it was 0-0. |
| How’s things on the home front? |
Not great. Grimsby were in Division One when the collapse of ITV Digital happened and so were one of those worst hit. Two subsequent relegations have made the situation even worse and it has recently been revealed that the club owes c£700k to the Inland Revenue. Their Supporters’ Trust has recently launched a ‘Keep the Mariners Afloat’ fund but at the moment the debt is still outstanding. Meanwhile, the club has recently banned local Radio Station, Radio Humberside for perceived ‘negativity’. While fans seem certain of the station’s bias towards the other side of the Humber Bridge, the ban itself is not popular if an online poll is to be believed. And, apart from anything else, you’d think that GTFC need all the media support they can get what with the current financial problems. Messageboards have also suggested that Town’s support isn’t the most positive at home, with one recent post saying: “Do we have the worst moaning fans in the fl?…I reckon that we do. Even when we win the fans boo the players off,” while others have called for fans to get behind the team. Sound familiar? |
| Will they bring many? |
| You’d like to think that they’d muster more than the 97 that made it last time – three figures maybe? |
| ‘Fascinating’ fact? |
Grimsby claims to be “The Food Capital of Europe”. Yes, there are lots of food industry firms in the town but we suspect there’s a touch of irony in the name too. And don’t ever make the mistake of asking any visiting fans if Grimsby is in Yorkshire. It most certainly isn’t and it’s quite a sensitive issue as these pictures show … |
| The Big Question of the Day |
| Will Harry the Haddock be in the away end? He was on Soccer AM the other week and top independent website The Cod Almighty shows that he’s been to quite a few other places (click on each image for the full picture). Quality. |
| Possible Tabloid Headlines |
“Cod We’re Rubbish” Says Atkins/Slade (delete where applicable) Rovers/Grimsby Batter Rovers/Grimsby (delete where applicable) Reddy For The Play-Offs “It’s trawl over for Rovers/Grimsby” (delete where applicable) |
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