Report: Grimsby 0 Dale 2

For when Grimsby Town host Dale, its fast becoming a fixture which has away win written all over it, such has been our success at Blundell Park over the past few years.

And we may have had a last minute injury / illness crisis in the run up to this game, but it mattered little as the game went the way that recent history and the form book suggested it would do, with Dale picking up a very deserved victory against a Grimsby side that looks like being in for a very long season.

It certainly was a put together at the last minute side. Nathan Stanton, Will Buckley and Scott Wiseman were all ruled out through either injury or illness. So Rory McArdle was drafted in for his first game of the season, playing at right back for the first time since we got hammered 5-0 at home by Bradford City in the Carling Cup. Marcus Holness came in to replace Nathan Stanton, whilst Adam Rundle was given his first League start since the middle of August.

Hosts Grimsby included in their side two new loan signings, one of which was a goalkeeper until eighteen months ago when he suddenly realised he could play up front. Based on today, you have to question whether he made the right decision.

The first half belonged to us.

In fact for forty minutes or so, it was slightly embarrassing such was the one sided nature of the game, as we dominated causing all sorts of panic in the Grimsby back line. To quote the manager, we were footballing them to death at times.

In contrast, Grimsby offered little. Up front, Akpro looked likely and wasn't the easiest opponent to deal with, but there was precious little team work.

The deserved break through came courtesy of the returning Adam Rundle, who was clearly out to stake a claim for a regular starting spot with some tough tackling alongside his wing work.

He was given the ball in acres of space, and just whilst the 500 strong away following was urging him to let rip with his left foot, he appeared to have done too much by taking it onto his right and into the defenders. But, this was simply a way of making more space for himself as he jinxed the ball back onto his left before beating Colgan in the Mariners' nets.

The lead was almost doubled soon after, when Simon Whaley broke clear of the home defence, but good goalkeeping from Colgan saw him race out to save bravely at the feet of the loanee.

But inevitably, the home side were to come back into the game and half time had come at just about the right time for Dale, as the five minutes or so before the break had seen the home side coming into the game, and whilst we weren't exactly threatened, there's something inside Dale fans that always leaves us a little hesitant at a one goal lead.

Whisperings amongst the away end had the half time results putting us top of the league, evoking memories of a previous trip to Grimsby where similar results had Dale fans celebrating their top of the league status at half time, in what proved to be the zenith of the season as it all went horribly wrong from that point on. There were no celebrations of a half time October table this time.

The second half started in the same way that the first half finished with the home side having lengthy spells of possession, but they found the makeshift Dale defence impenetrable, with Kenny Arthur mopping up any crosses that came in.

As the half wore on, we looked the more likely to score as we picked the home side off on the break. A couple of such moves broke down due to wrong decisions made by our forward line, and a couple more came to nothing as Rundle's lack of first team football over the season saw him tire.

It was Rundle who kept us in the lead at one point, when he cleared off the line. A big "Ooooooh" came from the home end, but this was nothing but a lukewarm chance, and after blocking it on the line, Rundle had enough time on the ball to take a touch before clearing.

Jonah was forced off with injury fifteen minutes into the second half, with Dale Stephens coming on. As a result of this, Craig Dawson took on the captaincy, and we must have had our oldest outfield player at this stage being no more than 24.

Another sub was made for the home side, with former Dale player Jamie Clarke coming on in bizarre circumstances with a rapturous applause from the Dale followers, yet booed by sections of the home fans.

A further chance followed, when a Grimsby chance rocketed off the crossbar though it appeared to many that it had just been blasted into the top of the home stand.

But that proved to be the last shout for the Fishy types, and the introduction of Joey Thompson for Adam Rundle proved to be the difference. He won the ball in the opposition box in what wasn't even a 50-50, and he cut the ball back to Chris O'Grady who's shot took a deflection, before taking an age to nestle into the back of the net.

2-0, game over and the stadium emptied.

With time running out, we had a late cameo from recent signing Marcus Manga who offered plenty including a rasping shot at one point amongst an array of tricks, suggesting there's plenty to come from the Frenchman. We could have Spotland echoing to the Marseillaise before too long.

The four minutes of injury time was simply a keep ball exercise for the Dale players, who seemed very happy to play to the fans as they knocked it about for fun. Its speculative whether Grimsby even touched the ball during this time, and the referee even getting in on it by blowing for full time as soon as Grimsby regained possession through a goal kick.

Upon reflection, this was a very solid performance by Dale, which should have got more goals than the two that we got, and we were very hard pressed to try and think of a save that Kenny Arthur had to make in the game.

And perhaps that is the biggest difference that we have this season. We have a defence which works its socks off to make sure that the opposition aren't getting their shots in, and if they do, bodies are being put on the line to block the shots. The summer of panicking over the state of our defence is very much a distant memory.

And so another win was chalked up for Dale, making it seven wins from our last nine games and with results elsewhere going against us during the second half, we had to settle for third place in the table. Third? C'mon Keith, get it sorted.