However, the reality was that the game was won in little more than the opening ten minutes, and whilst the relegation threatened visitors had plenty of possession in the remainder of the game, the result never looked in any doubt whatsoever as Dale coasted to an easy win. An easy win which left us in second place, our highest ever position under Keith Hill, and one which had supporters discussing the P word as they left Spotland smiling.

Any other set of supporters would have probably spent the second half singing songs about going up, but with enough false dawns over the years to single handedly keep the Samaritans in business, the Rochdale brand of realism brings a mixture of strong belief, caution and humility. A knowledge that we are undoubtedly good enough to over achieve on what is already an over achievement, but one in which no one is getting carried away with.

Well not much anyway, ;)

It was a case of friends reunited as the two teams ran out for this fixture, with three former Mariners in the Dale starting line up, and two former Daleys in the Grimsby side. Even the two managers were former team mates back at the very start of the Jack Walker era at Blackburn Rovers.

The only change in our starting line up was the recall of Clark Keltie following the groin injury picked up by Gary Jones at Darlington during the week. That meant former Grimsby full back Simon Ramsden was retained in the centre of defence with McArdle making it to the bench.

The game kicked off and within the opening seconds we nearly had the chance to had the whole game wrapped up. A flowing Dale move saw Clark Keltie advance on the Grimsby box, and as he looked to beat his man, he was clattered to the floor. The whole ground appealed for the penalty, and what potentially could have been a red card, but referee Trevor Kettle, the only official who has supporters groaning about him before the game, dismissed the shout and waved play on.

Not to worry, as within four minutes we had hammered the first nail in the Grimsby coffin. Adam Rundle, fresh from his goal scoring recall in midweek, went on a run down the left, bypassing former Dale player Jamie Clark . As the run went on, he cut into the middle, and with calls for him to shoot stemming from my left with all sorts of his personal qualities questioned, the boy from Durham let fly and his deflected shot beat the debutant Grimsby keeper. 1-0 to Dale.

We didn't have to wait too long for the next goal, as it followed just five minutes later. The goal was started due to a fantastic bit of work from Tom Kennedy inside our own half. On the touchline, he produced a great tackle to dispossess the Grimsby winger, and immediately he looked to distribute. He put the ball through for Alfie who had the whole of the Grimsby half to himself. He went straight to goal, and made no mistake to double our lead and ensure that our two goalscorers from Tuesday repeated their efforts today.

There were complaints from the away end and from the away dugout that Alfie had been offside for the goal, and this was backed up by reports from the main stand, but there were suggestions later that Alfie had run from his own half. Guess it'll be case of waiting for the replays before anyone makes their mind up.

As many around me jumped about in celebration, I looked to the away end to see two Grimsby fans just walking up the steps on arrival at the ground. £20 in, two goals down, game over and attentions turned to results of Bournemouth and Chester.

That second Dale goal also meant that in space of something like twenty minutes of football, Grimsby had lost two matches having turned a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 home defeat in the final eight minutes at home to Morecambe during the week.

The rest of the first half seemed like Dale had declared. There was almost a mirror image to last week's game with Brentford, as Dale were happy to sit on the lead, and pick up any opportunities that might come our way.

The visitors had plenty of the ball, but the only threats seemed to come from manager Mike Newell who continually berated the fourth official during the first half due to his displeasure at Dale's second goal. There was more than a modicum of upset on Newell.

The last few weeks have brought confidence to our back line, and whilst at the turn of the year, the fragility of our defence had brought a "We'll have to score at least two" mentality, those fears are now long gone, and you could have put your mortgage on a clean sheet being kept.

Veteran looking Striker Adrian Forbes was the only real danger, whilst his striker partner Adam Proudlock will surely look back on his career one day and wonder where it all went wrong. The talented but unathletic striker harks back to a bygone era where you could get away with such things. Washed up at 27.

Their was only one serious chance of the entire game which came the way of the visitors. And it was that man Forbes who was responsible. His turn and subsequent shot produced a stunning save from Fielding who tipped the ball onto the crossbar, and then out for the corner.

With time running out, there was such a lack of urgency to a game already secured, that Fielding could have had the ball at his feet all afternoon. He must have spent a minute kicking the ball, advance two or three yards further forward every so often as the Grimsby forward line stood, heads dropped and disinterested.

Half time brought a rather odd feeling. There was no feeling that we might run riot in the second half or any worries that Grimsby might launch any sort of comeback. The second half was simply something that we had to get out of the way, and there was possibly more attention spent on how our promotion rivals were getting on. A little too much attention at one particular moment.

And if that wasn't strange enough, we had reports of a half time bust up between Hill and Newell in the tunnel in which both managers were despatched to the stand. That must have been a major blow to Hill to be forced out of a dugout that he hadn't been anywhere near in the entire game. Justice, the Trevor Kettle way.

Not only that, Kettle was probably Grimsby's best defender at the start of the second half as it was he who interrupted two pressing Dale moves. There'd been fouls in the build up and rather than allowing the excellent advantage that we had in both cases, Kettle decided to bring play back. There's a Kettle whistling pun to be made somewhere but I can't be bothered.

Changes were made, with Thompson disappointing many amongst the home crowd by giving them nothing to complain about and having a very solid game. Indeed, he could even have finished up with a couple of goals having a good effort saved by the Grim keeper and getting into great areas only for Dagnall to take the shot on himself on a couple of occasions.

But the win had been secured so early on, they'd probably already started updating the league tables by around 3:15 as the win was never in doubt, and whatever possession that Town had counted for nothing as we more than comfortably dealt with them.

The final whistle brought an end to a game that came close to going through the motions at times, with whispers circulating that all the results had gone our way and we'd ended up second in the table as very worthy winners.

There's plenty to be critical about Grimsby as a club. Their supporters must scratch their heads at quite how a side which regularly attract crowds significantly higher than ourselves, and with that finds themselves wallowing in a relegation battle despite much higher funds to work with than a promotion challenging side like Dale. They are the yang to Dale's ying.

But whilst the Mariners find themselves competing against sides who have played the admin card and the questionable practices operated by our good friends at Chester, it should be hoped that Grimsby find a way out of their current predicament and one of the more deserving sides find themselves wondering next season whether Ebbsfleet and Histon are actually real places.

That said, it's a great feeling to be looking down on the relegation battle simply as voyeurs, as our concerns and ambitions are for much higher things right now and long may that be the case. Grimsby had been yet again simply a case of job done.