Saturday 1st January 2011
Blue Square Premier at Blundell Park, Cleethorpes
Grimsby Town (2) 7
(Bore 5, 51, 89 Coulson 7 Connell 56, 81, Kempson 69)
Mansfield Town (1) 2
(Duffy 44, Briscoe 57)
Admission £16, Programme £2.50,
Free team sheet, Attendance 3,654
Will the real Mansfield Town please stand up, please stand up, please stand up!?
Was that really the same starting eleven who took to the field of play at the Abbey Stadium just a few days ago?
According to my full colour very tastefully presented team sheet it was, yet from high up in the Findus Stand it looked very much to me as though they had been replaced by a team of doppelgänger herbivores.
That is to say a team of lookalikes with no heart.
Talking of HEARTS, it was great to catch the 12.30pm Edinburgh derby live on TV before this east coast goal-fest ... and see that the Scottish capital's finest are still giving those two gruesome political/religious institutions from Glasgow a run for their money in the SPL.
Long may it continue.
You didn't think I was going to miss the opportunity to seize on a link like that did you!?
Grimsby Town, without any league action for 6 weeks prior to today, have obviously been using their blank match days well and concentrating on staying fit and sharp.
They set off at a phenomenal pace and didn't let up throughout.
Frankly the were breathtaking to watch at times today.
The margin of victory didn't tell the whole story, in fact if anything it flattered the Stags somewhat.
Every time the Mariners went forward, they looked like scoring ... Mansfield Town on the other hand capitulated after about five minutes and were completely outclassed for virtually all of the remainder of the game.
Full colour snazzy team sheet
The Stags new manager issued an apology to the fans who had travelled over to support Mansfield (518 of them officially in the away end, but a few dozen scattered around in the upper tier of the Findus Stand too) after the game, but on this kind of form not many clubs in the Conference/Blue Square Bet Premier Division* would have coped with Grimsby today.
The match report from the official Mansfield Town website includes enough superlatives and praise for the Grimsby performance without me gushing all over their display in an OTT display of admiration, so click here to read what they had to say http://www.mansfieldtown.net/page/MatchReport/0,,10325,00.html, note you have to pay to read what it says on Grimsby Town's own website, so I couldn't tell you how they called it.
Obviously I would have preferred Mansfield to win the game, or at least play like some of the players had actually met each other before, or even look like they gave a damn. But though the biased onlooker in me was seething with a few of those imposters wearing the amber and blue today, the football fan in me did feel quite privileged to have seen such an attacking and effective display from the home side.
Doubtless I'll get called a few rude names from my mates at Field Mill for saying that the next time I see them, but it's the truth.
I can't make everything I write on this blog up all of the time.
Louis Briscoe was, for the most part, Mansfield's one saving grace, his goal from 30 yards out was an absolute belter, yet even he, in my humble opinion, was fortunate to finish the game ... I felt sure the referee was going to red card him at one point but thankfully he only brandished a yellow.
It's small consolation I know, but Mansfield Town can draw some comfort from the fact that theirs wasn't the worse performance of the afternoon out on the Blundell Park pitch.
If I had been a referee's assessor today, then Richard West would have been lucky to have scraped a 4 out of 10 at best.
He had a shocker. But his input had no bearing on the result, Mansfield got what they deserved and Grimsby nearly did.
Grimsby Town (2) 7
(Bore 5, 51, 89 Coulson 7 Connell 56, 81, Kempson 69)
Mansfield Town (1) 2
(Duffy 44, Briscoe 57)
Admission £16, Programme £2.50,
Free team sheet, Attendance 3,654
Will the real Mansfield Town please stand up, please stand up, please stand up!?Was that really the same starting eleven who took to the field of play at the Abbey Stadium just a few days ago?
According to my full colour very tastefully presented team sheet it was, yet from high up in the Findus Stand it looked very much to me as though they had been replaced by a team of doppelgänger herbivores.
That is to say a team of lookalikes with no heart.
Talking of HEARTS, it was great to catch the 12.30pm Edinburgh derby live on TV before this east coast goal-fest ... and see that the Scottish capital's finest are still giving those two gruesome political/religious institutions from Glasgow a run for their money in the SPL.
Long may it continue.
You didn't think I was going to miss the opportunity to seize on a link like that did you!?
Grimsby Town, without any league action for 6 weeks prior to today, have obviously been using their blank match days well and concentrating on staying fit and sharp.They set off at a phenomenal pace and didn't let up throughout.
Frankly the were breathtaking to watch at times today.
The margin of victory didn't tell the whole story, in fact if anything it flattered the Stags somewhat.
Every time the Mariners went forward, they looked like scoring ... Mansfield Town on the other hand capitulated after about five minutes and were completely outclassed for virtually all of the remainder of the game.
Full colour snazzy team sheetThe Stags new manager issued an apology to the fans who had travelled over to support Mansfield (518 of them officially in the away end, but a few dozen scattered around in the upper tier of the Findus Stand too) after the game, but on this kind of form not many clubs in the Conference/Blue Square Bet Premier Division* would have coped with Grimsby today.
The match report from the official Mansfield Town website includes enough superlatives and praise for the Grimsby performance without me gushing all over their display in an OTT display of admiration, so click here to read what they had to say http://www.mansfieldtown.net/page/MatchReport/0,,10325,00.html, note you have to pay to read what it says on Grimsby Town's own website, so I couldn't tell you how they called it.Obviously I would have preferred Mansfield to win the game, or at least play like some of the players had actually met each other before, or even look like they gave a damn. But though the biased onlooker in me was seething with a few of those imposters wearing the amber and blue today, the football fan in me did feel quite privileged to have seen such an attacking and effective display from the home side.
Doubtless I'll get called a few rude names from my mates at Field Mill for saying that the next time I see them, but it's the truth.
I can't make everything I write on this blog up all of the time.
Louis Briscoe was, for the most part, Mansfield's one saving grace, his goal from 30 yards out was an absolute belter, yet even he, in my humble opinion, was fortunate to finish the game ... I felt sure the referee was going to red card him at one point but thankfully he only brandished a yellow.It's small consolation I know, but Mansfield Town can draw some comfort from the fact that theirs wasn't the worse performance of the afternoon out on the Blundell Park pitch.
If I had been a referee's assessor today, then Richard West would have been lucky to have scraped a 4 out of 10 at best.
He had a shocker. But his input had no bearing on the result, Mansfield got what they deserved and Grimsby nearly did.
