Calverton Miners Welfare 4 v Blidworth Welfare 3 - CMFL South

Saturday 29th December 2012

at Kinton Fields, Hollinwood Lane, Calverton

Central Midlands League (South)

Calverton Miners Welfare  (2) 4
Jack Caulton 4,
David Reedman 44
Luke Attenborough 54,
Alex Clarson 70,

Blidworth Welfare  (0) 3
Jason Dawson 49
Rowland Carter 60,
Ryan Cheetham 86,

Admission £3, Programme £1
Attendance 32

Weather, bloody horrible
Left click pictures slightly enlarged versions

A lot of scheduled fixtures in the area were called off today, because of the persistent precipitation we've been having, but this pitch hosted two 90 minute matches in one afternoon.
Calverton's reserves played on it earlier, in a game that kicked off at noon.
The groundsman's face was a picture of extreme distraughtedness after the second game.
BTW, I'm copyrighting the word distraughtedness, so don't even think about trying to usurp it.
I wouldn't imagine that the animals queueing up in pairs on the pitch to board the ark, stood waiting for them behind the far end goal, would've helped his plight very much either.
The weather of late, certainly seems to be on course for 40 days and nights of rainfall, of Biblical proportions.

There are 17 teams in the CMFL South, these two both reside in the bottom five.

The hosts are currently 13th in the table, while the visitors occupy bottom place, having picked up just 4 points out of 17 games.
I wasn't anticipating a classic, especially once the pitch began to cut up, as it inevitably did, but I was pleasantly surprised when both teams actually produced a half decent game.
Which given the ingredients and the elements, was something of a minor miracle ... maybe today was the day, when the last pair of mating Unicorns left in the world, would actually take their second chance to catch a lift with Noah.
They currently reside on the Sherwood Forest Farm Park site, that stands in between Edwinstowe and Gorsethorpe, so they didn't have far to travel today.

Calverton were ahead inside four minutes, when Jack Caulton, ran on to a through ball played through the right channel, had a quick look over his shoulder to make sure the Blidworth defence weren't following him, confirmed that they were indeed missing in action, steadied himself and drilled the ball into the net from ten yards out.

The home side's centre forward (AKA number 9, I don't have his name to hand), ought to have added a couple more as the first half unfolded, but he couldn't quite find the final touch after getting himself into some great positions, in and around the visitors six yard box.
The visitors too, had a one or two openings, as both teams got muddy and slid about on the difficult pitch, as the groundsman looked on in horror, through his fingers.
Blidworth almost held on to prevent any further damage to their top heavy, goals against column, until half time, but David Reedman, lashed home an unstoppable shot, from just inside the visitors area, two minutes before the break, after Blidworth had tried passing their way out of difficulty, instead of just whacking the ball away from the danger zone.
HT - Calverton 2 v Blidworth 0

I stayed under the roof the second half, but suspected that any further goals were more likely to be scored at the other end.
But there is a good reason why my nickname isn't Nostradamus and once more, another prophecy was rubbished, as Ryan Cheetham, got a goal back for Blidworth, right at the beginning of the second half, before mouthing "Your predictions are crap son" in my direction and raising his right index finger to his lips in a 'Shhhh!' gesture (that is a lie, that I invented to embellish my word count, btw).
On 53 minutes, 'Calvo' re-established their two goal advantage, when Luke Attenborough, squeezed the ball home just inside the right hand upright from 12 yards out, via the keepers outstretched arms.

On the hour, Blidworth were on the verge of making a game of it again, when Rowland Carter, beat the Calverton keeper James Wright to a Gregg Smith cross and headed the ball over him, to make the score 2-3.
The game was end to end stuff, with a flurry of goalmouth action and I'm happy to report that I had inadvertently, chanced upon, a very entertaining game.
Blidworth certainly weren't playing like a bottom of the table team.

As the visitors pushed forward for an equaliser, that very nearly came, when James Wright had to keep a Jason Dawson effort out at full stretch, Calverton counter attacked.
Gareth Briggs saved Luke Attenbrough's initial shot, but Attenborough got to the rebound and pulled the ball back across the face of the visitors goal and Alex Clarson tapped the ball in from close range.

On 85 minutes, Blidworth set up a grandstand finish (well, not actually a grandstand, but a decent sized roof on stilts, that keeps the rain out, none the less), when Ryan Cheetham, scored a third goal for the visitors, who were then unlucky not to grab a point right at the death when Jamie Plawecki smashed free kick against the right hand post in added time. 
FT - Calverton 4 v Blidworth 3
Calverton are still 13th in the table.
Blidworth are still rooted to the bottom, but Blackwell Miners Welfare, 4 points above them, have let 18 more goals in so far this season, so it's not all doom and gloom.
The visitors new manager Lee Cook will have seen plenty of positives to build on today.

Next up:
New Years Day - Weather permitting, I'll be at Alfreton Town v Mansfield Town in the BSBP.
Failing that, plan B is Gainsborough Trinity v FC Halifax Town.
And then, I'm going abroad for a Thursday night game.

Mansfield Town 1 v Alfreton Town 2 - BSBP

Wednesday 26th December 2012,
at Field Mill (AKA the One Call Stadium)
Blue Square Bet Premier
Mansfield Town  (1) 1
John Dempster 35
Alfreton Town  (1) 2
Paul Clayton 37, Ben Tomlinson 57
Admission £17,
Programme £3 (2 in 1 issue covering December 26th & 29th)
Attendance 4,186 (inc. 350 Alfreton fans)

Mansfield Town:
Marriott, Sutton, Dempster, Geohaghon, Beevers, Briscoe (Speight 77 mins), Howell, Clements (Stevenson 81 mins), Meikle, Hutchinson (Rhead 55 mins), Green.
Subs not used: Thompson, Murray.
Alfreton Town:
Barnes, Law, Quinn, Brown, Clayton, Bradley, Arnold (Wilson 90+ mins), Franks, Russell, Tomlinson (Emerton 90 mins), Killock.
Subs not used: Taylor, Meadows, Harriott.

Many a cynical person said that today's attendance had only tipped over the 4,000 mark, because a lot of people had purchased tickets in advance for this match, due this afternoons ticket stub, being one of the requisite items that people needed to be able to apply for tickets to the FA Cup game against Liverpool on January 6th.
But, the Cup game is already a complete sell out and there were still plenty of people queuing up in the rain, to get seats for this Notts v Derbyshire local derby, right up until kick off time.
The crowd would probably have been even higher. But the away fans had been given conflicting information over whether it was an all ticket game for them or not.
So, in the event, a good few of them didn't travel, because the tickets hadn't been on sale for long enough for some Reds fans to get their hands on one.
Alfreton supporters who stayed at home, because they didn't have a ticket, will have been thrilled to have learnt that there was actually a cash turnstile open for them at the North Stand end after all.

In a lot of industries, there is a certain amount of 'job and knock' syndrome practised around the festive season. Whereby the gaffer turns a blind eye, when employees slope off early, once they've got a token amount of work completed.
However, today was the first time I'd seen it happen at a football match.
On 35 minutes, John Dempster put the home side ahead and collectively, the whole Stags team seemed to adopt a 'job done' mindset to the whole thing.
Whereas Alfreton, at least hung on until the end of 90 minutes (plus the additional six that referee Seb Stockbridge added on), before they slipped into their Onesie's and got stuck into the turkey sandwiches.

Before Mansfield deservedly took the lead, it had looked as if beating their Derbyshire neighbours would merely be a formality, because there was really only one team in it up to that point.
But, they just seemed to switch off after going a goal in front.
And once Alfreton pulled the score back to one apiece, almost immediately after Dempster's goal. Well ... it seemed to me, that only one team were really up for it from then on in.
Alfreton wanted it more.
And Mansfield got what they deserved.
Sure, the weather was atrocious and the playing conditions were far from ideal, but they were the same for both teams.
Alfreton adapted their game plan accordingly, Mansfield didn't, end of.

FA Cup fever may well be sweeping across the town, but by the time the Stags illustrious 3rd Round opponents get to Field Mill on January 6th, along with the TV cameras and all the razzmatazz, there will have been a whole load of league points up for grabs over the holiday period, which need to be contested for, given that finishing the season in a play off place must take precedence and priority over any glamour games.
And, for the record, I'll still be saying that when Mansfield are heading to Stamford Bridge in the 4th Round too ;-)
League leaders Grimsby Town, who swept Lincoln City aside today, visit 'fortress Field Mill' in a few days time and then the Stags have a tricky return fixture against Nick Law's Alfreton on January 1st.
I doubt if many of the the Field Mill faithful would've been contemplating a maximum points return from those two back to back games, as they left the ground at full time this afternoon
Some of the Stags team may have been looking ahead to the forthcoming FA Cup game with Liverpool and weren't as focussed as they should've been.
Others, not to put too fine a point on it, were out of sorts today and played completely crap.

But for me, Mansfield's main contribution to their own downfall today, besides fielding several disinterested looking players who showed no heart whatsoever, was their manager Paul Cox's inflexible tactics, that were quite obviously not working.
With hindsight, he might also be questioning the wisdom of a couple of his own decisions regarding substitutions too.
Chris Clements and Ben Hutchinson were both taken off this afternoon, while players who were having a lesser effect on the game, were left to carry on going through the motions and offering the team, as a whole, little more than a token input.
30 minutes to go, at home and losing against an average but organised team (who ground out a result, by playing to their limited strengths), is not the time to persevere with a one up front hoof ball game.
Especially when the majority of those 'direct' balls are finding opposition players, or merely getting stuck in the mud and staying where they landed until the Alfreton midfield cleared any potential danger.
Note, I deliberately said midfield, because only a few speculatively punted, hit and hope balls had anything like enough range on them, to get anywhere near the visitors back four.

I hate being negative about the Stags and I've no wish to get embroiled in the 'debate' about whether or not it's time for a change of manager at the 'One Call Stadium', nor name and shame the Mansfield players who I thought were inept today.
Because some things don't need to be said, they speak volumes for themselves already.
Mansfield applied a lot of pressure on the visitors goal in the first half a hour and the Alfreton keeper, Phil Barnes, must have been expecting a relentlessly busy afternoon from then on in.
Barnes pulled off one particularly good save, when he tipped Chris Clements twenty five yard shot over the bar.
Although it was mainly long throw ins and corners causing Alfreton problems, tippy tappy football was never going to be an option on an ever worsening playing surface, as the rain hammered down.
I suspect that if pitch had been as soggy at 3pm as it was by the time the final whistle sounded, that this game might seriously have been in doubt of ever starting.
It looked as though the Stags had taken the lead from a Chris Clements corner, but the Alfreton defence managed to scramble it away, off of the line.
Then Alfreton had a gilt edged chance cleared off the line at the other end, when Ritchie Sutton rescued Mansfield with a last ditch clearance, after Ben Tomlinson had flicked the ball into Paul Clayton's path with his head following a left wing corner.

Clayton is a typical, combative style player, straight out of the same mould as his manager. Leading with his elbows and never shirking from the most reckless or dangerous challenges, he's the sort of player opposition fans will always take an instant dislike to, but who they would put on a pedestal as some kind of cult hero if he was playing for their team instead of against them.
Lee Beevers slung a cross over from out on the left, Matt Green went up with Phil Barnes and two Reds defenders got in each others way, as the loose ball fell to John Dempster, who drilled the ball into the net, to open the scoring from inside the six yard box.
Phew!
After having dominated most of the opening exchanges, save for a few worrying moments just before they took the lead, surely Dempster's strike would now settle a few nerves in front of goal and the Stags could get a grip of the game and ... whoops! I spoke too soon.
Josh Law floated a free kick into the Mansfield area, Paul Clayton took advantage of a non existent marking system and headed home the equaliser beyond the reach of Alan Marriott who was left grasping thin air.

Ben Hutchinson came close to restoring the Stags lead early in the second half, but his shot deflected wide.
Shortly afterwards, Hutchinson was taken off and Matt Rhead came on in his place.
Rhead is a certain type of player ... exponents and fans of the long ball game would call him 'a very adept target man, with great strength', but a guy sat a few rows down from me who is more of a 'purist' uttered "Oh here we go again. Hoof, hoof, hoof. What's he taken Hutchinson off and put that big useless lump on for!?'
Either way, East Midlands air traffic control were warned to divert any traffic that they might have in the area away from Mansfield until the game was over and we all craned our necks and tilted our heads back to watch the remainder of this 'feisty' local derby.
One must wonder, what is actually the point of all the passing drills and close control practice Andy Todd puts the players through prior to kick off.
His reserve team play that way, to good effect. And if you get into the ground early enough, you can see that this Mansfield Town side contains a number of decent players who are very good at that sort of thing.
But, in the current climate, first team pre match drills might as well just consist of players seeing how far they can whack the ball in the general direction of the other half of the pitch, to nobody in particular.

Horses for courses, when the need arises, is all well and good and 'going route one' is, sometimes, the only way to get out of a tight spot late in the game.
But arrgh!
This is a home game against a very ordinary Alfreton Town side FFS!
Now, where was I?
Oh yes. Ben Tomlinson went shoulder to shoulder with Exodus Geohaghon on the edge of the Stags area and left the big defender rolling in the mud as he homed in on goal and shot past Alan Marriott.
A few Mansfield players went to the linesman to complain about the legality of the challenge leading up to the goal, but it was all above board.
'Fair shoulder charge', 'being out-muscled in a 50/50 tussle for the ball', and 'clear your lines next time you big clumsy ****!', all spring to mind at this juncture.
Tomlinson gave the Stags player a slight push as they came together, but in my humble opinion Geohaghon went down far too easily.
Of course, I wanted the referee to disallow the goal, because I'm very, very biased, but he didn't, because it was perfectly legit.
I've seen Matt Green score similar goals for the Stags and such challenges are commonplace in the game. Some you win, some you come second.
The former Worksop Town Under 19's striker had out manoeuvred the powerhouse colossus that is 'Big Ex' fair and square, all ends up.
And now it was the time for certain players to man up, grow a pair and show the kind of fight and desire that was needed to get back into this game.

Tempers frayed on the pitch, as Matt Green was subjected to a couple of heavy challenges, one of which led to a handbags at ten paces flare up in the middle of the park, as the referees assistants came on to help to calm the situation down.
With ten minutes to go, Paul Cox decided to go three up front and chase the game.
Hallelujah!
So he took the Stags best player on the day off and threw Jake Speight on up front.
Hmm, two questions occurred to me at this point:
Why not just leave Ben Hutchinson on in the first place?
But the one that really baffled me was: Why take Chris Clements off?
Surely he was the spark of creativity most likely to provide the service the strikers needed and he'd performed very effectively thus far; unlike a couple of other players who the manager seems to persist with regardless.
But, I'm forgetting, Clements is a midfielder and the middle of the pitch doesn't get used when the ball is up in the clouds.
So, in effect, he was sacrificed to make way for an even more direct game plan.
On 88 minutes, Jake Speight almost justified Cox's tinkering, when Phil Barnes blocked a stinging shot from the Stags substitute striker, after Matt Rhead had flicked the ball on to him.
In stoppage time, Matt Green came close to equalising, twice, but with Mansfield stretched and their players committed forward, Ben Tomlinson and Paul Clayton also both had chances to make it 3-1.
FT - Mansfield Town 1 v Alfreton Town 2

Some Stags fans booed their team and Paul Cox off the pitch at the end of the game.
I didn't.
Nor did I join the small band of happy clappers who stayed behind either.
Personally, I just wanted to get out of the ground and go home, ASAP, the moment that the final whistle sounded.

Left click for larger image

The Mansfield manager's thoughts on today's game can be found here --> Paul Cox post match comments

Gainsborough Trinity 1 v. Stalybridge Celtic 2 - BSBN

Saturday 22nd December 2012, at the Northolme
Blue Square Bet North
Gainsborough Trinity   (1) 1
Greg Young 5
Stalybridge Celtic (0) 2
Mitchell Austin 51
Kelvin Bleau 68
Admission £11, Programme £2.50, Attendance 506

Official attendance 506

Gainsborough Trinity:
Jan Budtz, Dominic Roma, Josh Wilde, Greg Young (Jonathan Williams 89 mins), Danny Hone, Michael Leary, Jonathan Dlaryea, Craig Thorpe, Dominic Knowles, Darryn Stamp (Bradley Barraclough 69 mins), Jamie Yates (Terry Hawkridge 55 mins)
Unused Subs: Mark Wilson, Lynton Karkach

Stalybridge Celtic:  
Alex Cairns, Kelvin Bleau, Callum Warburton (Joel Bembo-Leta 86 mins), Tim Ryan, Kristian Platt, Prince Hayward, Tom Buckley, Greg Wilkinson, Jack Laird (Dennis Sheriff 90 mins), Corey Gregory, Mitchell Austin (Alec Mudimu 74 mins)
Unused Subs: Rico Gomes, Adam Pepper

Trinity went into this game as the form team, on the back of seven consecutive wins, which form part part of an impressive twelve game unbeaten run. 
And, of course, they're through to the last 32 in the FA Trophy after beating Forest Green Rovers (away) last Saturday.
The home side were a goal to the good on five minutes as Greg Young arrived in the box late to get on the end of an in-swinging Josh Wilde corner kick ... and so it looked as though we were in for an afternoon of 'business as usual'.
Alas, despite starting well today and looking like the only team who were going to get anything out of this game for the first twenty minutes, they were decidedly average for the remaining seventy, as Stalybridge got more and more into their stride and, in the end, deserved to win this (at times) fairly grim encounter, played under deep grey skies, on a wet and miserable afternoon.

Watch the late run from that Greg Young ...

he's that number 4 who just arrived in shot ...

yeah that's him, the one who just scored!

The visitors really got into their rhythm, the longer the game went on, and they showed what a good passing side they actually are, for long spells, during the second half.
Whilst the Trinity staff and fans who'd worked on the pitch for several hours, in the build up to the kick off (there were several pre match pitch inspections, by all accounts), must've wondered if it had been worth all that effort by the time the final whistle sounded.

At the end of the game, I did hear a few people of the 'Holy Blues' persuasion, muttering sentiments along the lines of "They threw it away and ran out of steam, after peaking too soon" ... and granted, they may have had a point. 
But in essence, Stalybridge had actually kept the ball and knocked it around well after the break, containing and restricting the Blues movement, whilst clinically finishing off two of their goal chances, which were both created from passes knocked through both the left and the ride channels into the Trinity area, by Greg Wilkinson and Corey Gregory respectively. Whilst the Blues back four stood still and held their line rigidly, allowing both runners, namely left winger, Mitchell Austin and right back, Kelvin Bleau, to put angled balls into the back of the net, past Jan Budtz, the impressive Gainsborough keeper, who's recent form has been the key to his sides great run of results.

In between the visitors scoring twice, Trinity did pick up some momentum, when Terry Hawkridge hit the upright, while Michael Leary and Darryn Stamp both put shots wide of the Alex Cairns' goal.
But then Stalybridge went on the attack and Jan Budtz was called into action, saving goal bound efforts from both Greg Wilkinson and Jack Laird. 
Sadly, a game that had started so brightly for Greg Young, ended painfully for him when he had to go off injured, late in the game, having taken a hefty knock on his ankle.
He did appear to be in quite a lot of pain.
Greg was last seen leaving the Northolme on crutches, en route to the hospital to have an X-Ray. 
Hopefully it's not anything too serious, because Trinity have a challenging run of fixtures coming up, starting with a trip to FC Halifax Town on Boxing Day, followed by a long haul down to Worcester City on the 29th in another Blue Square Bet *North* fixture. 
I think there are probably only London, Kent and Cornwall left nowadays, that aren't considered to be 'oop north', when it comes to allocating teams places within the pyramid structure of non league football.

Trinity did try to chase the game in stoppage time, but in the end, it was a case too little, too late ... and the Badgers held on to take three valuable points off of their fourth placed hosts.
By the way, I didn't realise until this afternoon, that Stalybridge are nicknamed 'the Badgers', despite have seen them play dozens of times. I'd always thought they were called either 'the Bridge', 'the Celts', just plain old 'Celtic'.
But whatever they're called, I don't think a lot of people really appreciated just how effectively  they had sprayed the ball around and played Trinity off the park for most of the second half. 
Even their own merry band of young followers, who hung up their flags and sang for the entire match, belted out a chorus of: "We're winning away - We're winning away - How shit must you be!? - We're winning away".
Full time - Gainsborough Trinity 1 v Stalybridge Celtic 2

The Club Shop Kop

Next up: 
A Boxing Day double: Sherwood Colliery v Glapwell, an 11am kick off, in the CMFL North. Followed by the Blue Square Bet Premier, local derby, between Mansfield Town and Alfreton Town, which kicks off at 3pm.

Gainsborough Trinity U18 2 v Cleethorpes Town U18 2 - LIFL Premier Division

Sunday 16th December 2012, at the Northolme
Lincolnshire Intermediate League, Premier Division
Gainsborough Trinity U18  (0) 2
Lynton Karkach 60, 64
Cleethorpes Town U18  (1) 2
Admission free, no programme, attendance 40 ish
Raffle £1. Prize, a charming bottle of red, won by me!

Cleethorpes took the lead on 10 minutes, when their centre forward hooked the ball over the Trinity keeper's head as he sprinted to the edge of the box to clear his lines.
Trinity looked to get straight back on level terms, in this second against third encounter, but a combination of a stubborn 'Clee' rearguard and some wayward finishing, meant that the half time score was 0-1, despite the visitors goalscorer having had two further attempts disallowed, the first for an infringement off the ball by a team mate and the second for offside.

Trinity breathed a sigh of relief when Town's left winger shot narrowly wide on 56 minutes.
Shortly afterwards the visitors substituted their number 9 after the referee had shown a couple of yellow cards for some verbals in the Trinity penalty area between him and the home side's keeper, that the Cleethorpes player was still clearly heated up about afterwards.

On the hour,  Lynton Karkach smashed home an equaliser for the Blues off of the underside of the visitors crossbar and within four minutes he struck again, having latched onto a rebound from the keeper to slot the ball home from 6 yards.
With the Trinity first team manager looking on from the bench, as always, today's performance won't have harmed Karkach's chances of moving up the ranks at the club any harm at all.

After working so hard to turn around their half time deficit, Trinity will have been gutted that Cleethorpes equalised with just two minutes to go, when their midfield play-maker made himself a yard of space on the edge of the box and shot into the corner of the net.
I apologise for not knowing the identities of any of the Cleethorpes Town players today. 
To be honest there are a few Trinity players I don't know the names of either, but this is the LITL and they don't do programmes or issue team sheets.  

Bend it like Lynton Karach

Grimsby Town 4 v Havant & Waterlooville 0 - FA Trophy 2nd Round

Pre match entertainment was provided by a plump seagull, who's party 

piece is flying into chimney pots at speed and demolishing them

Saturday 15th December 2012, at Blundell Park, Cleethorpes
FA Trophy Second Round
Grimsby Town (3) 4
Shaun Pearson 2,
Andy Cook 9, 60
Greg Pearson 35
Havant & Waterlooville (0) 0
Admission £12, Programme £1, 
Attendance 1215 (28 away fans)
Bitter in the Imperial, £1.70 a pint ... result!

Grimsby Town 
McKeown, Hatton, Niven, Pearson (S), Colbeck, Disley, Cook, Pearson (G), Wood, Pond, Marshall.
Subs -  Miller, Southwell, Thanoj, Neilson, Rankine.
Havant & Waterlooville
Masters, Newton, Butler, Bailey, Harris, Woodford, Nametti, Ryan, Palmer, Kabba, Arthur.
Subs - Strugnell, Hutchinson, Taggart, Ramsey, Jones.

A game which pitted Blue Square Bet South strugglers and stragglers, Havant & Waterlooville, against the Blue Square Bet Premier's current second placed club, Grimsby Town. 
Grimsby did what they had to this afternoon, without exactly ripping any trees up or working up much of a sweat.
Because, if truth be told, Havant & Waterlooville didn't give a very good account of themselves at all today at Blundell Park.
Given their purported pedigree and reputation for embarking on cup runs (remember, they were famously in front against Liverpool in a FA Cup tie at Anfield a few years ago), I was disappointed by the Hawks showing today.
Maybe they'd had a bad journey up from Hampshire, possibly they were embarrassed about having to wear such an awful kit in public.
But, whatever the reason was, they misfired and really struggled to get going at all.

The Mariners on the other hand, did all their best work early on in the game and were in front inside the first two minutes, when Shaun Pearson headed home a right wing free kick by Sam Hatton.
Shortly afterwards, Marcus Marshall teed the ball up for Joe Colbeck, who's close range effort was blocked well by the visitors keeper Clarke Masters, who then rode his luck when Marshall knocked the loose ball against the outside of the left hand upright from just three yards out.
Derek Niven fired a speculative shot from 30 yards out, but Masters got down to his left and managed to fumble the ball round the post, as it bobbled trickily in front of him, at the expense of corner.

In the ninth minute, the lively Marshall put a great cross over from the left flank that Andy Cook headed home for Town's second, from an unmarked position at the back post.
It would seem that somebody had done their homework on the visitors and had spotted that they were (not to put too fine a point on it) rubbish at dealing with crosses.
The Hawks mounted a rare push into Grimsby's last third and Joe Colbeck earned himself a booking for abruptly halting Chris Arthur's forward run.
It was a niggly, daft and unnecessary foul.
The visitors then enjoyed their best spell of the game, but after they had a corner and free kick into the Grimsby area dealt with fairly easily, they faded away again.
Marshall and Colbeck, worked a short corner routine between them, that led to a chance for Nathan Pond who headed wide.
Colbeck provided a foil for Craig Disley as they played a one-two inside the visitors area, but Disley's final shot lacked any real power and Masters saved it quite easily.

Niven and Pond, both had shots from outside the Havant & Waterlooville area, that came to nothing, before the home side netted their third goal, when Greg Pearson scored from a glancing header after Marshall had delivered a telling cross over from the left wing again.
The game was now effectively over.
The Hawks nearly gave their small, but vocal, band of fans something to cheer before the break, when Christian Nanetti's left wing corner found Chris Arthur, but he blazed his shot both high and wide of the target.
And then after a great pass through the right channel by Nanetti, Sahr Kabba had a close range shot saved by James McKeown.
Although the first half hadn't been all Grimsby, it had been mostly Grimsby.
And the second half and final result were now both fairly academic, as the home side, with a Friday night clash against Wrexham on the horizon, could now sit back and take things easy, whilst Havant & Waterlooville, well ... that's what they had been doing for most of the first half anyway.

On 58 minutes, Joe Colbeck, already sitting on a yellow card, in a game that his team had all but won already anyway, went flying into a tackle on Dan Butler, near the half way, with his studs up.
It was a crude challenge that left the referee, Chris Kavanagh, with no option but to send him off for a second yellow card offence.
Hmm ... the lengths some people will go to get time off at Xmas!
The youngsters tucked in the corner of a virtually deserted Pontoon Stand, broke into a chorus of "You don't know what you're doing", but on the evidence of what I'd just witnessed, I couldn't be sure whether they were aiming that taunt at the referee or Joe Colbeck :-/ 
Two minutes later, just in case the visitors thought that numerical advantage was going to be their salvation, Grimsby scored again, when Andy Cook claimed his second goal of the game with a great effort from 12 yards out, after he'd taken the ball on the edge of the box and advanced on Masters goal.

Craig Disley, he's looking quite old these days

Even with an extra man on the pitch, the visitors were still going nowhere fast. And Grimsby had chances to increase their lead further, when both Sam Hatton and Andi Thanoj took turns to smash the ball over the Hawks crossbar.
Right at the death Havant & Waterlooville had two half heated attempts on goal, when Ollie Palmer flashed a snap shot over the bar and then Steve Ramsey belted the ball even further over the same bar, after another of the visitors substitutes, Ed Hutchinson, had played the ball neatly into his path.
The final whistle sounded and Grimsby Town marched on to the next round of the FA Trophy.
You can only beat what is in front of you on days like this.
And though the Mariners never really got out of second gear after the break, there wasn't ever really any urgent need for them to do so either, after all the required damage had already been done, during the first half.
Interestingly, Gainsborough Trinity also got through to the next round of the Trophy today, after beating Forest Green Rovers away in their game.
What an intriguing and mouth watering prospect a GTFC v GTFC game would be.
Perhaps that one can keep until the final!?

All 28 Havant & Waterlooville supporters

Elsewhere, at the top of the CMFL North, things really hotted up today, when Harworth Colliery beat Welbeck Welfare 4-0 to stay in touch with the leading pack, while Dronfield Town recorded a 5-1 away win at league leaders AFC Mansfield, which sees them go level with the Bulls on points, with a game in hand. CMFL South leaders Newark Town, squandered three points in a surprise 2-0 home defeat to Clifton All Whites.
In the Baris NCEL, Staveley MW are now in the top four, having seen off Barton Town Old Boys 3-0 at Inkersall Road, while Retford United gave themselves a springboard for the second half of the season, with a 3-1 home win against Long Eaton United, as they sneak up on the blind side in the top half of the table.
Worksop Parramore's game at Arnold, my original destination today, was called off early this morning, meaning I'll have to go scrounging and begging off of Peter Whitehead some other time in the not too distant future instead now ;-)
And let's not forget Frickley Athletic, who beat second placed Hednesford Town today, to gain three valuable as they climb towards safety in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League.

Next up:
Hopefully, I'll be at the Northolme tomorrow afternoon for Gainsborough Trinity v Cleethorpes Town in the Lincs Intermediate League.
Followed by the 'championship decider' between Staveley MW and Retford United in the NMU19L Div 1 on Monday and the Buxton v Harworth Colliery game in the NMU19L Div 2 on Tuesday.
And then I'm at Easington United v Harworth Colliery in the CMFL North, next weekend.
But, of course, that all depends on the weather.

Left click team sheet for enlarged image.

No! I wasn't today's match sponsor.