Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 18 February 2011
18 February 2011
With almost a third of fixtures still unplayed, any of the top half of the Conference teams can still wistfully imagine 'putting a little run together' and getting into the play-off mix. But Grimsby manager Neil Woods has long given up harbouring such notions, your Guest Diarist suspects. Too many opponents find that it is relatively easy not to lose to this 'big' club. Points dropped hither and thither; a consistency of being inconsistent, a failure to beat those around them, and too often dropping points against the division's minnows all conspire to remove any credentials for Town to occupy a play-off place. And, crucially, no sign of any remedy for this malaise has been forthcoming from team or manager. No leaders in the team and no dynamic leadership apparent from Mr Woods, I'm afraid.
Tomorrow's 'difficult match' is away at Fleetwood - a team who beat us soundly at home back in September when we were still 'gelling'. They dominated us in midfield, were organised, committed and, fundamentally, were too good. Will the Town team taking the field tomorrow, five months on, be a better one? Let's have a think, gentle reader.
Defensively, I'd say so. A bit better anyway. Arthur has pulled his fingers out and is playing pretty well. The back four are not quite as prone to let the ball bounce in the danger area and the crosses are not allowed to rain in quite as often as earlier in the season. Full-backs Wood and Ridley are two of our better players, Atkinson and Kempson a more than adequate centre-half pairing for this division. The bigger remaining defensive problem is the inability to close down shot-intending opposition forwards who seem to belie the notion that shooting 'from there' is a low-risk outcome by scoring a succession of goals against us that are far too good for this division.
In central midfield? Little progress to be honest. Cummins and Hudson have improved but by nowhere near enough. And the two signings Sinclair and Hughes? The two bits of class signed to add guile and playmaking skills to the totally misfiring Town midfield engine? Well, Hughes has broken down with his achilles problem and Sinclair has pulled out of training with a "tight thigh". Class might tell, but continual niggling injuries mean we never get the chance to see it. Sinclair is doubtful for tomorrow, Hughes might start back training today, but surely can't be fit enough to take on such an energetic opposition.
This area of the team is widely felt to be Mr Woods' achilles heel too. And he hasn't helped his cause with these doubters by explaining to the Telegraph that he failed to take his interest in Cambridge midfield player Paul Carden further because "circumstances are that we have five or six midfield players in the club at present". Given that the two key central midfield players are both equally injury-prone, and given Woodses' own admission that the other three are just too similar, this statement is frustrating to say the least.
Woodses likes to play two wide men. But their mission seems not to get behind the full-back and swing in dangerous crosses but to cut inside, which tends to take the impetus out of Town's attacks. Eagle, Bore, Makofo, Coulson: each have qualities, each have deficiencies. We've seen the glimpses of their abilities but, lots of times actually, we've seen them drift out of games and fail to worry opposition defences by running at them with committed pace.
Up front Connell is reduced to making the most of his own chances. He works hard for himself and his goal tally, given the lack of attacking support, is excellent. He needs a regular partner who can supply him with second ball and convince him to collaborate more. It's early days for Duffy - he got off to a great start but didn't exactly convince at home last Saturday. Peacock is only good for a 20-minute cameo and Ademeno has had the nightmare injury season that cynics predicted when he signed. But hey, he's training again and "looked tremendously sharp" said Woodses. Perhaps we'd be better off watching the team train rather than play. I'd guess Ademeno is a fortnight away from his next comeback.
Overall, Town haven't lost that many but haven't turned out enough efficient victories against lesser sides to deserve to be anywhere other than where they are. Fleetwood's run since Christmas hasn't been strong - they've lost five this year - but Grimsby have only made very slow progress in catching them, and a defeat on Saturday will be more damaging to Grimsby. Fleetwood might have lost to York in midweek but their performance gave the watching Woods little consolation in the result. Fleetwood played well enough to worry him, and the result has York jostling Town at the edge of the play-offs. A draw will be a decent result for Grimsby against a side that has only lost once at home. But a draw won't be good enough really, given the Woods propensity to make do with a point. See yer.