Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 17 September 2016

Division 4

Grimsby Town 0

Crewe Alexandra 2 Cooper (54+1), Jones (85)

Attendance: 5289 (173 away fans)

I don't know why. Perhaps they felt sorry for him after a couple of clatterings.

Sensible people in sensible shoes make sensible choices. It's a responsible job for a responsible man. Shaun Pearson: air raid warden. Oi, turn that light off Luke.

Oh dear, what a shame, never mind. It ain't 'alf rot for Luke, who could do no right with his feet or brain.

"Everyone will be treated in the same manner – I don't care who it is. It's the same for me as manager. After Luton I was a good manager, this week I'm a rubbish one. That's what life is like in professional football.

"There were certain individuals who fell below their recent standards. That was clear, but it's not about individuals – it's about the team.

"Saturday showed that for us to do anything in this league and be competitive, it's got to be a team effort and we've got to stretch every sinew, week in, week out."

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"It was a professional performance, magnificent defending when we needed to, we had to dig in at times, but were worthy of being 1-0 up. Second half at 1-0 it gives them hope; we could have gone 3-0 up though with the chances, and the game could've been over. I never felt we were out of control of the game, felt we bossed the game really well."

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The way I figure it everyone has to take a beating some of the time. This was one of those times.

The opponents were good enough to expose the weaknesses we know already exist. Only Pearson really met the challenge. The best were a mixture of the unremarkable and the overpowered. Tuton ran into brick walls rather than through them. Omar allowed himself to be distracted by his and the referee's ego. Summerfield looked like a Guiseley player in waiting, while the wingers were ineffective wastes of time. Poor old Gowling was making a strong case for Collins as he continued to wobble along his line of laxitude.

Nothing new here – the better teams in this division will be better, and Crewe were. We just need two teams to be worse more often.

Crewe were better. As a team, as individual players (though who could possibly guess at how effective their keeper is as he only had to do two and a half things). Not scary, not vastly superior, but simply comfortably slightly better. As a team they were more disciplined, able to move feet and brains quicker, with a collective comfort in the tactics and each other.

They have by far the best defence seen so far, especially the centre-backs. The Cheshire chasers worked from the forwards backwards to harry and hassle and impose themselves on Town, stopping any attempts to play football out from the back. None of their players stood out, because they were all equally effective.

Crewe are half a division better than Town. Should be near the top if this is their usual standard. A quietly effective, unshowy team.

Bored at home, pining for another foreign holiday.

Mr M Salisbury (Lancs)

It's genetic, or else it's a family at war with Grimsby Town. He had a very good opening minute but accumulated annoyances with an increasing love for everything dressed in red. His linesmen were not much better either, following the Salisbury family tradition of inferring foul motives for every Town movement. Still, he didn't send Gowling off so an extra point gives him 5.564. It's a family thing.

Monochrome monotony and a few home truths.

In a word: dumplings