Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 21 October 2017

Division 4

Morecambe 0

Grimsby Town 0

Attendance: 1525 (462 away fans)

That wind. For an hour or more it blew across to the long open side of the Globe Arena. One throw-in on the right inevitably led to another. It was also at Morecambe's backs in the first half. They were attacking the end where their own fans stood, but the fans stood well back, the bottom steps of the terrace empty. Rain billowed above the main stand, misted the pitch, and would have stung the face of anyone standing low on the home terrace. Rattling on the corrugated roof of the stand, it sounded like hail.

Having exerted his personality on the match, Storm Brian turned capricious for the last half-hour. The rain stopped and now the wind, like a bad referee, blew any way it wanted. One corner flag pointed right, another left. Martyn Woolford took a corner. The wind sent it spiralling up and back and out of play 15 yards short of the near post. One moment the ball would stop, the next it would gather pace and race away from a chasing forward.

Both sides played with one eye on the conditions and another on the opposition. We'd have run out of balls if anyone had tried to hoof it. But the wind and the heavy pitch emphasised the lack of pace in both teams. Just once, Morecambe were able to break fluently and, shooting from the edge of the area, forced a flying save from James McKeown.

That is not to say there was no prospect of a goal. The conditions added to the randomness that always applies to fourth-flight football. When the ball was in the box there was always the chance of an error. Around the time of McKeown's save, a scramble in our penalty area ended with a shot being guided wide and the closest Town came was when Danny Collins headed over from a corner. In the second half, Paul Dixon kicked a ball of the line, although it looked like McKeown had it covered in any case.

In a sensible world, both sides would have taken a look outside, agreed a draw and passed the afternoon playing board games. For the last five minutes, it felt a tacit agreement had been reached that neither side deserved to win, both sides deserved a point. They had fought the wind, and had fought it to a standstill. That was a kind of victory.

Everyone stood in the right places and did the right things. The back four got in all their headers and tackles. James Berrett was negatively effective in stopping Morecambe and Luke Summerfield did his best to discover openings. Martyn Woolford and Scott Vernon were neat and skilful if a little ponderous.

When the goalkeeper is named man of the match there is always the danger of giving the wrong impression. James McKeown didn't make a single save you wouldn't expect him to make. But in the conditions he was always clear and decisive. Waiting for something to do on a day that was really meant for being inside looking out at, he would not have human if he had not occasionally asked himself what on earth he was doing out there, whether there weren't better ways to earn a crust. He didn't let it show.

"Sometimes our final ball wasn't quite there. I thought both teams looked a threat from set plays because of the swirling wind and it could've quite easily been a messy goal today that was gonna be the deciding factor."

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"We changed things today and worked really hard to make sure we were strong and disciplined and we did that. We were strong and focused and competed well and restricted a very good Grimsby side to very little."

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We are emerging as an industrious, intelligent side. Perhaps a bit too intelligent at times: there were times you wanted someone to think what the hell, head straight for goal and see what happened. A Jack Lester, even a Danny North, could light up this whole team. In the last couple of weeks, it has been Siriki Dembele who has lit the touchpaper but this was no day for him.

On another day, you would have said that Morecambe were there for the taking. With Kevin Ellison suspended, they have no particular threats. But they too were well organised. You'd like to think there are worse teams than them in this league. I'd love to visit Morecambe on a spring day when the trains are running smoothly. 

Common sense prevailed. There was a little discontent midway through the second half when we were failing to exert any pressure and passes were going astray, but everyone could see the team was working hard to get something from the game. A win at Cheltenham does buy patience.

Mr B Toner (Lancs)

The referee was fine. It felt to me that in the last ten minutes he was awarding Morecambe a few too many soft free-kicks. No doubt a Morecambe fan would disagree. There were a couple of moments when you feared Toner might have interpreted a situation as being worth a penalty but he didn't have too much to get wrong. A solid B grade 6.5.

"It's wet and windy, let's stay by the fire."

"No, better not."

In a word: Persevering