Battling Notts bring home the points

08 February 2010 14:05
Grimsby Town 0-1 Notts County Let's start another Monday lunchtime report by setting the tone - Grimsby Town's predicament is something of a constant source of amusement to me. You see, when I did the NCM predictions in pre-season I had the gall to predict the Mariners 21st. Cue a torrent of abuse on Grimsby messageboards and by Town fans on NCM, claiming I had no clue and that the messiah Mike Newell was ready to lead an assault on League One, with a free scoring attack and watertight defence. Now, I don't profess to be the prediction daddy (just look at Aldershot Town, Accrington Stanley and Northampton Town. Oops.), but I think I got this one right, if perhaps  slightly generous to the Mariners. Have a look here, whilst any grovelling Mariners fans can report to the NCM messageboard. This isn't so much a gloating paragraph, it's just to show the lack of general footballing knowledge that Grimsby Town supporters seem to possess. Right, onto the game, on paper it looked like a game Notts should win, with the Magpies in unstoppable form with five straight away wins and Town staring down the barrell of equalling a club record of twenty games without a win. What Notts could expect though, was a battle, which was a prospect that hardly excited NCM when we think back to how limited sides such as Barnet and Morecambe were able to bully us earlier in the season. That doesn't happen anymore. In fact, within ten minutes of kick off at the delapidated (or, as my esteemed co-editor put it, "this looks like a war camp") Blundell Park, former Mariner Ricky Ravenhill had charged into a strong challenge on the touchline, whipping the home fans into a frenzy. At least that's what we think happened, as we were still trying to find two seats that allowed us a view of more than half of the pitch. It was a nasty challenge by Ravenhill and a yellow card was deserved, but it paled in insignificance when compared to our old friend Tommy Wright's challenge on Neal Bishop minutes later. Notts fans may remember Wright from his Walsall days, when his thuggish behaviour angered many on a trip to the Bescot Stadium. His chest high challenge on Kevin Pilkington that day was nothing compared to the two-footed lunge on Bishop that left the Notts midfield writhing in pain. The referee, probably hoping to avert even more trouble, gave Wright only a yellow card, but make no mistake - it was a shocker. All this talk of nasty tackles is really to mask what was a turgid first half, in which two long range efforts by Johnnie Jackson that were straight down the throat of Nick Colgan was as good as it got in the first half an hour. Ravenhill could count himself very lucky not to have received a second booking for hauling down a breaking Mariner (one all, then), whilst he almost opened the scoring with a fizzing volley that was deflected just wide. For the hosts, some neat possession and huffing and puffing seemed to be the height of their efforts, with Paul Linwood's knee diverting a corner three yards wide to sum up a first half that went some way to matching the first period against Forest Green Rovers for dullness. Half time was spent hovering over a radiator watching the rugby in what Grimsby called a 'bar', but what was actually a dodgy social club from a 1960's sitcom with some bad upholstery and a fruit machine that didn't work properly. We headed back to the horribly uncomfortable seats for the second half, hoping for some kind of entertainment on the pitch. We didn't really get it, although the match continued in it's full-blooded nature with Calamity John Thompson (who is fast losing his nickname with some impressive performances at right) flying into some crunching, but fair, tackles. The imperious Mike Edwards was then involved in his own 'bloodgate' scandal, with the home fans convinced a blood capsule was responsible for his scarlet covered face, rather than Tommy Wright's 'challenge' (well, minor assault). The ref once again contrived not send Wright off, but we were cheered up by Wes Fletcher's attempted shot which he sliced in the opposition direction to the goal. Having waited patiently for just one clear cut chance, we got it in the 69th minute and it fell to the one man on the pitch every Notts fan would've chosen. Kasper Schmeichel's goal kick bounced past the hapless Grimsby defence and Lee Hughes raced through, slamming a half volley past Colgan with his first touch, to score a goal that pretty much summed up a scrappy game, but send 987 travelling fans into raptures. You got the sense that might be that for such a scrappy affair and it proved to be so as the home side tried to get back into it but had just a clever overhead kick from Nathan Jarman which was comfortably saved by a clearly bored Kasper Schmeichel to show for their efforts. Notts saw the game through with a huge degree of ease to make it six straight wins on the road and a fourth straight clean sheet. It wasn't pretty by any means and was the Magpies' first league win by just one goal, but it was a priceless three points on the promotion trail, particularly with Darlington completing a hilarious double over our friends Rotherham United in the North East. Next up for Notts is the third trip to Bournemouth of the season for a promotion six-pointer at Dean Court on Tuesday, after which (and only then) we can turn our attention to the FA Cup. If only Grimsby could be saying such things, eh?NCM

Source: FOOTYMAD