Cod Almighty | Diary

The red face sees red

20 February 2017

Nurse Diary writes: In a week where Grimsby Town had been decimated by Crewe, then played on a surface that certainly wasn't a football pitch in drizzly Wales, the return of Steve Evans – one of football's more colourful managers – to Blundell Park with his Mansfield Town always promised to have an air of pantomime about it.

Evans is a character that every football fan has an opinion about. Some would say he is the kind of character that football needs, others that he should never have been allowed to manage again after his after his prosecution for tax evasion. A few Grimsby fans even said they would welcome him at Blundell Park once Paul Hurst had departed for sunny Shropshire; I'm not sure I'd have gone quite that far myself. But you are practically guaranteed that it won't be uneventful when he's around.

In the lead-up to Saturday's game, Evans said all the right things in the press about our club being a "top-end League One club if not a Championship one". If he thought that these kind words would earn him a reprieve from the stick he said himself he gets when at BP, he was wrong. But at times he doesn't half bring it on himself.

From kick off Evans was animated, at times his face looking redder than the stripes on his coat. The Main Stand faithful were all being predictably vocal in his direction and at times the theatrics threatened to distract from events on the pitch.

That would have been a shame, as our display was without doubt the best we'd been since the Luton win. Town are a right Jekyll and Hyde side at times but it was a pretty solid display. It was such an improved overall performance from the previous two that you'd have been hard pressed to pick just one man of the match.

Bolarinwa played his best match so far in the black and white stripes. Sam Jones and Jamey Osborne both deserve a mention and of course Calum Dyson contributed nicely with two goals, his first a pretty nifty solo effort. James McKeown yet again making a couple of good stops between the sticks. And Shaun Pearson made his 250th appearance at the back, a stat that deserves a mention. It was overall an encouraging display and it was nice to walk out of BP smiling and happy, something I never take for granted.

However the main talking point will no doubt be that Mr Evans again. It was always coming, in all honesty. And it was no surprise when after yet another exchange with the fourth official that good old Stevie was shown a red card by the ref, much to the Town fans' immense amusement. He was 'warmly' greeted when he appeared a few minutes later in the press box, and in an even more bizarre moment – after one of his players was also shown a red card – he clashed with some fans and was escorted from the press box by security staff. I'm not so sure I share his confidence that people will empathise with his situation, or his claim that it was only a polite exchange of words that led to his departure.

All in all, though, a good day at the office for GTFC. I’m sure I’ll see a few of you at Morecambe come Saturday. Never a dull moment, eh?