Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Division 4

Grimsby Town 0

Brentford 1 MacDonald (27)

Attendance: 3001

Why not? He was his usual self.

In the teeth of a gale he retrieved balls with purpose, pace and commitment, never giving up despite the gate being a bit big for him.

"We have to keep believing in ourselves and soldiering on. There are 12 games to go and we start again with Lincoln on Saturday. We've just lost five on the bounce, having started to get it going in January, so the results have not gone our way and we find ourselves in a difficult position, but this is where we find out about people, about characters. When we come out of it we will be stronger for it. I feel responsible for our position and I will take the brunt of it. "We have been in the bottom two on points gained all season. It's a case of having 12 games left to get out of it, which is enough, and we will have to think that that run we have just been on will be turned around. We are due a good spell and we need people who believe and are prepared to die for the cause and get us out of it. I won't have pessimism in the dressing room."

"These are the type of games where you have to come and grind out a result. We are a strong group and we were comfortable all night long. It was an awful game but we gave a thoroughly professional performance in awful conditions."

They were nothing special; in fact they were a bit of a bore. MacDonald was a minor irritant occasionally and their centre-backs proved capable of heading the ball a long way. They were the least impressive of the new year visitors, looking decidedly average and adequate mid-table rollers. They weren't troubled by Town, but they didn't really trouble Town either. On a terrible night they did enough to draw, but accidentally won. You can only shrug your shoulders and ask "Is that it?" There's always one team that goes up because they run around a bit more and have a bit of luck. Perhaps it's their turn to get relegated next year.

Mr S Mathieson (Cheshire)
The game had no merit and neither did he. He gave liberalism a bad name, particularly when failing to book Rhodes for diving and for punching the ball goalwards. His insistence that Henderson take a free kick from exactly the right spot two yards from the corner flag deep, deep into injury time rather sums him up. 5.000.

Have you seen Simon Schama's cheese soufflé? Ah, now Mr Fenty, at last your dream of superb Conference facilities is on the horizon.