Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 24 January 2015

Conference Premier

Nuneaton Town 0

Grimsby Town 2 Pittman (53), Hannah (88)

Attendance: 989 (406 away fans)

As King Carl the Magnayficent made a single, solitary mistake, he is officially barred from the confectionery stall. It certainly isn't the China Clay teapot or Mr Dizzerpointing, the puddles of muddling imprecision in the middle. Don't start me talking. I could talk all night. Oliver Palmer, for a second-half rampage.

"When you're playing against a team like Nuneaton it doesn't matter if you've looked the better team - if they get something to hold on to, your task becomes far more difficult."

Town turned up on time and phoned in the same performance. Turning up was enough to beat non-opponents, so the inherent vices can be overlooked. Beastly Eastleigh can't be such accommodating hosts. No-one could.

Only when Palmer and Hannah were together did Town have any flow or threat. They look like a ready-made partnership, a classic little and large combo. The rest was turgid dross, the usual stodgy porridge.

Well, they blew their last chance of a win this season. The Nunnies had nothing to offer except Sodje's squealing dives. There's no point in wasting time thinking about them any more. They have relegation tattooed on their foreheads.

The little drummer boys drummed and hummed; the rest of us watched the gulls go by and swapped stories of Blodwyn Pig. It's the same old story.

Mr R Whitton (Essex)

How can a referee go through an entire game and not book Toto or Pearson? Madness, some call it madness. This man was generally unobtrusive, though Bootgate will, unlike Nathan Arnold, run and run. In the local vernacular Oi'll geeve 'im 5.9999.

Mud, mud, inglorious mud. Down to the hollow, and there let us wallow in Oliver Palmer's ponytailed promenading.

In a word: serendipity