Match stats: Wimbledon v Grimsby

Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 9 November 2024

Division 4

Wimbledon 0

Grimsby Town 1 Rose (30)

Attendance: 8,307 (1,015 away fans)

Cod Almighty man of the match: Cameron McJannet

Khouri was his brilliant, tenacious self and Wright can be well pleased with his first clean sheet. Rodgers headed everything that came his way against route zero tactics. On another day Greeny's ball for the winner might be enough alone but it's Cameron McJannet who takes the honours. Already established as one of the best defenders we've had in recent years, he again showed he can handle larger opponents as well as play. "He's got a wide arse, and he uses it well" was the explanatory compliment from one member of our group.

Cod Almighty un-man of the match: Nobody

Everybody put in a shift. The question marks which hovver menacingly over the defensive flanks at Blundell Park couldn't be arsed to make the long trip south, with Hume and Warren mostly doing the right things in the right places. Svanthorsson had a tough first half and the tea and KitKat speculation was that he might get the half-time hook. However, he re-emerged and improved, lasting the full ninety minutes. Indeed, it was telling of the growing character of this team that captains Rose and Khouri urged Jason forward to lead the post-match celebrations with the fans. Stick together with this lot.

Our gaffer says

Satnav Dave knows where the bumps in the road are when it comes to travelling away from Blundell Park, he's looked at the map:

"We've been here before, we've been round the M25"

Oh, and the football, that's the easy bit when you've done your homework:

"We knew they'd played four out of the bottom five at home so their home form was possibly misleading"

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Their gaffer says

Cor blimey, their Cockernee Geezer bowl of chalks out in his new Gloria Gaynors and, like, he gives it well large, rabbit and porking till the cows come home:

"They set up to frustrate us and they done it great…We was loose today, I felt we was sleepwalking into them"

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Us

The win lifts us back into the play-off spots. The scenario where we actually get promoted in May is as impossibly far-fetched as, well, our last promotion in 2022. Maybe that's not a bad thing. While the club lays the foundations on and off the pitch for division three and beyond, we can have some good old-fashioned mid-table fun as new heroes emerge. Watch Greeny take another step towards winning this season's Luke Waterfall Award for Exposing Online Loudmouth Twattery. Let Evan Khouri put a smile on your face with another surgical sliding tackle or nifty reverse ball. Greet Doug Tharm jogging towards the away end to warm up like you would Bruce Springsteen coming on stage at Glastonbury. Cheer heartily as Old Bill escorts a local tit out of the ground for being a local tit. 

Them

Big, strong, organised, with some nippy attackers. Play off bound in this bog standard division.

Official warning

Mr T Parsons

A respectable day for Mr Parsons. It's not easy being a ref at the best of times, doubly so when every set-piece is a blur of barging and tugging bodies. The home fans grumbled on occasion, but so did we when Dons rucked and mauled our boys on the blind side of the scrum. What's that they say about a good deal being two slightly unhappy parties? 7.000

Line-ups

Wimbledon: Goodman, Lewis, Ball (Biler 80), Johnson (Ogundere 69), Neufville, Maycock (Kelly 80), Smith, Hippolyte Tilley, Stevens (Pigott 69), Bugiel

Subs not used: Furlong, Harbottle, Ward

Booked: Johnson, Smith

Town: Wright, Warren, Rodgers, McJannet, Green (Cass 64), McEachran (Tharme 84), Khouri, Hume, Svanthorsson, Rose (Obikwu 84), Barrington (Ainley 72)

Subs not used: Auton, Luker, Gardner

Booked: Wright, Hume, McEachran