Had I been a Grimsby supporter, I'd have probably come away from
this game, quite frustrated that a decent performance against one of the
promotion chasing sides had been ruined by a poor start, but taking
enough encouragement from the performance which caused a top three side
a few problems on their own patch. 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.
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