Seriously, it's hard, and can lead to potential future embarrassment further down the line, ever to draw too much from what on paper was an encouraging performance and result. Although played at a reasonable pace, which our yellow-bellied chums seemed less willing or able to maintain in the second half, the game was, despite the inevitable moments of over-exuberance, not exactly what you would call full-blooded in its ferocity, whatever our leading exponent of lazy sensationalism down at Blundell's Corner will make of it. And there are far too many, complex and, as we know from last season, unexpected factors influencing the eventual state of things come May for us to be able to say much more than that, from what we have seen so far, if we play to our potential, and avoid injuries, suspensions, drinking cultures, and attitude problems, we will be a force to be reckoned with. Which is about what half of this season's Div 3 will be saying at this particular moment, albeit with less credibility than the worthy Tigers in most cases.
Last night having been my first opportunity to watch City in action this pre-season, but having heard a lot from those who have been more fortunate than me in that regard, it seems that we did not stamp as much authority on last night's opponents as we had against Whitby and Scarborough in particular. That said, the men from the land that time forgot provided - by far - our toughest opposition so far of the warm-up phase. Despite the silly tauntings from the Kempton regarding Grimsby's prospects for the season, (although it did take a full 45 minutes before we were treated to a rendition of "Rent Boy", presumably because it took those who were singing it that long to remember the words), directed at a creditable away following of 300 plus, our visitors were no mugs, especially in the first half, when they displayed a skilfulness, a pleasing economy of effort and ability to let the ball do the work and organisation which bore witness to their existence on a somewhat higher footballing plane than our heroes of late, and which to be honest we didn't quite match. Yes, they were no mugs, and, importantly for them, they have acquired Div 1 habits. Whether the financial pressures and internal strife with which they are beset will form
an insurmountable barrier to retaining their current status remains to be seen, but don't be surprised to see them collect quite a few unexpected scalps over the coming months. More importantly from our point of view, it was good to see, all the above caveats notwithstanding, City prevail against opponents of this pedigree.
The biggest plus point for me was the sight of a properly-functioning midfield in amber and black, led by Ashbee who, in a quietly efficient, almost unobtrusive way, was tremendously effective and, for me, the most impressive man in amber. Also good to see that the midfield, three against Grimsby's four, was being properly supported by the full-backs, Dudfield and Elliott (who had a fairly quiet evening). Proper football indeed, which gave the Tigers a much more solid and cohesive look. It was also nice to see Glennon a couple of stone lighter, and Price looking interested when he came on, as it would have been a shame to see two young players of such potential condemned to the slippery slope they were hurtling down last term. A special mention also for trialist Itonga, who was pacy and skilful in the 17 minutes he was on, although how exactly he would fit in to the structure Molby has assembled is not clear. On the negative side, there was (and I note that this was commented on at Scarborough) something curiously worrying about the defence, not least the number of occasions on which more diminutive opponents got to the ball in the air, and on which there was an apparent inability of the central defenders and Glennon to communicate effectively with each other. The Grimsby goal, late on, provided a microcosm of these shortcomings.
Anyway, some facts, in truncated form. As expected, we carded a strong XI, arguably our strongest if you put Green in for Williams:-
| Glennon | ||||
| Edwards | Anderson | Strong | Smith | |
| Williams | Ashbee | Appleby | ||
| Dudfield | Alexander | Elliott |
Subs: Greaves (for Elliott, 58 mins), Price (for Appleby, 68 mins), Itonga (for Williams, 73 mins), Peat (for Dudfield, 80 mins)
Weather was glorious if slightly muggy, and you could have played snooker on the lush Boothferry sward, mown in concentric circles.
City defended Bunkers in the first half.
First goal came on 35 minutes, slightly against the run of play. Williams picked up a stray ball 35 yards from the City line and went on a surging diagonal run from right to left, before chipping the ball deftly over the head of Grimsby netminder Coyne and onto the bar. The rebound fell to the Dude, who volleyed powerfully, on the full, low into the bottom left corner despite the close attentions of a Grimsby defender. A goal out of nothing, but pleasing to see it executed so ruthlessly.
The second came on 53. Edwards, under pressure, snatched slightly at an underhit lay-off back from Appleby (the latter does a lot of these little lay-offs, which might not endear him to the City crowd if we're 0-2 down to Carlisle at the time), but the ball ran all the way through to the Dude, onside and in the clear some 35/40 yards out. The City number 8 bore down on the Grimsby goal, rounded Coyne as though he were a traffic cone and slotted the ball into the empty net, just like Waggy did to Bonetti at Stamford Bridge in 1966.
The yellow-bellies pulled one back with three minutes to go, when a cross came over from the left and Jevons - not the tallest tree in the forest - headed home from close range. Bad defending.
Crowd was given as 4,369, which looked a bit of an underestimate.
Report by: Ian Thomson