Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 21 July 2011

21 July 2011

Last night saw a clash of the perennial away teams last night as Grimsby of Cleethorpes and Sheffield FC of Derbyshire did battle in Dronfield. The oldest football club in the world certainly has no delusions of grandeur but played excellent hosts to the couple of hundred travelling Town fans that arrived in Dronfield in the rain last night. The club owns the pub which is effectively attached to the ground and it was filled with away fans long before kick-off.

The ground was similar to many of those in the Conference last year but thankfully had a covered terrace where the Town fans congregated in shelter from the rain until half time when it was, of course, no problem to dash back to the pub and return for the second half. This is something your Part-Time Diary will miss if and when we do return to League football, and the burger van was a cut above anything within 100 yards of Blundell Park. So the pressure was well and truly on Grimsby to not ruin a lovely evening, as they have done so many in the past, with a limp performance.

Dominant in possession, a decent goal in either half and a clean sheet is what I had hoped to be writing today but did not particularly expect to be. I was pleasantly surprised. Sheffield FC are of course three leagues below Town at present but they worked hard and they put pressure on the Mariners in the first half. Grimsby, however, resisted; they defended properly, they kept the ball well and they looked much the better team throughout the game. So that's a second good performance in pre-season; we need to be careful or those optimism levels could start to get dangerously high.

Shorty and Shouty certainly look like they have built a decent team of players though. Pearson was reliable and threw himself around as well as looking an extra attacking threat with his goal. McKeown looked comfortable, apart from a first half spill which was probably more to do with the rain than his ability, and should definitely be looking to push KA Kenny Arthur for his place. Makofo was fast and willing and improving. And the rest were beginning to look like a team and best of all they were all properly talking to each other. Yay.

Barnsley on Saturday will be a greater test for the new team but it's the places more similar to Sheffield FC where we need to be picking up points next season and where we failed to do enough last season. A few injuries have crept up in the last games and Pearson limped off last night, but hopefully these are of a pre-season niggly nature and will pass before the season properly begins. That is, of course, when the real test of this new-look, non-League-look team will come - and I'm beginning to look forward to it. Roll on Fleetwood.