Match stats: Halifax Town v Grimsby

Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Sunday 22 May 2016

FA Trophy (F)

Halifax Town 1 McManus 48

Grimsby Town 0

Attendance: 46781

Sponsors' man of the match: Nicky Wroe

One of them. For being a professional footballer. How ironic.

Cod Almighty man of the match: no-one

You cannot be serious.

Our gaffer says

"I just thought it looked a game too far for us. It's a learning curve for them and for us all. Ultimately, at the start of the season, if we'd had said we'll win promotion and get to the Trophy final then everyone would've snapped our hands off.

"It doesn't hide the fact that we would've liked to have won today. It was another fantastic turnout and the fans put their hands in their pockets again. But what we can look forward to is League football and that was the main target at the start of the season."

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Their gaffer says

"This result is amazing. It was exciting preparing for Wembley and thoroughly enjoyable, although at times the final was painful for me. But to beat Grimsby who are going into the Football League is massive."

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Us

This was just a normal performance: uninspired, uninspiring and descending into a messy shambles of lumpen lumping after routine slackness resulted in concession.

The old players looked very old, the fringe was tatty and Town launched themselves into the future with a whimper, showcasing their weaknesses to the waiting wolves.

Them

Thoroughly deserved to slay the slumbering pliants. They have pace and purpose in possession with triangles of skittering wingery. They had a notion, a style, a method, and just didn't turn up and expect the party to continue.

They played football. They were entertaining.

So how did they manage to avoid unrelegation?

Grimsby 'til I die... or cry?

The clapping fish was neutered by the ticketing doughnut.

Official warning

Mr L Mason (Lancs)

Without getting any major decision fundamentally wrong he was a constant irritant who broke up what flow there was in the game. A pernickety peeper for whom the bell tolls: 6.001. Wrapped too tight for 'Nam.

Readers' digest

Tepid, timid Town tosh and bluemen bothered. And then it went quiet over here.

In a word: ersatz

Line-ups

Halifax Town: Johnson; Brown, Bencherif, Roberts; Bolton, Wroe, Hibbs, McManus (James 73); MacDonald (Walker 62), Burrow, Peniket (Hughes 86)

Subs not used: McDonald, Porter

Town: McKeown; Tait (East 81), Pearson, Nsiala, Robertson; Nolan, Clay (Arnold 62), Disley, Monkhouse (Pittman 68); Amond, Bogle

Subs not used: Gowling, Venney

Played at Wembley.