Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 20 September 2025

Division 4

Barnet 3 Ofoborh (42, 67), Ndlovu (64)

Grimsby Town 0 Green (9), Kabia (23), Vernam (29)

Attendance: 3,260 (1,275 away fans)

As odd as it seems after a runaround stuffing, McJannet could walk away with his head held high as the last man standing on the burning bridge, with a little cameo of Beckenbauerian surges and Poutonian step-overs as the wreck slipped below the waves. Only he and McEachran didn't give up.

It's the grand return of the fallible full-backs, the failings on the flanks, for they both fell apart, unable to control their legs, the ball or their minds. They simply disintegrated, failing the stress test.

As Town got the runaround here's the moral and the story from the man who knows:

"Two non-negotiables for me - you run around and you try to play football…we did neither. Whatever the reasons are you cannot go onto a football pitch, produce that and not show any fight, that's not us…No response, no change, we were awful, no sugar coating. it looked for some players like it was hard to kick the ball ten yards."

No one bites back as hard on their anger, but the pain and woe shows through behind blue eyes:

“They know they’ve let everyone down. We can only apologise for what can only be described as… a polite word is probably abject…Today was a chastening relapse. We’ll watch the game again…and then tell them what we think”

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Decent Dean was decidedly magnanimous and definitely honest in deconstructing the game as ruthlessly as his team deconstructed Town:

"We stayed on the front foot all game. Their application, their running, their running for each other, their running for the cause was tremendous. We wanted to keep stepping up to McEachran and keep tackling him."

Aww, isn't he a nice chap:

"Grimsby had an off day. They've been amazing this year so far, we wish them well in the Carabao Cup, they're flying the flag for League Two, but today was our day."

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We all want to be positive, but if there's nothing to be positive about we must be honest.

There is nothing positive to extract from this rotting carcass. Town stepped back two seasons into those post-Christmas days of disaster, blunder and catastrophe. Hapless, hopeless and humiliated. A headless corpse, a twitching cadaver, a total and utter shambles.

Only Pym and McJannet maintained standards, McEachran had one of his Little George days but at least kept on keeping on. The rest? Lost boys in fear of the crocodiles snapping at their feet. Pushed around, shoved about, hustled and hassled, overrun and outplayed.

All three goals came from set pieces, two corners where the same bloke was left alone and a collapsing clown car of a goal kick. Town were simply appalling, collectively and individually, where most of our players just looked scared of theirs. An aberration or the next point on the graph of decline?

There is a clear and consistent pattern identifiable, one that was there last season and from the Harrogate game this season. This Town still can't deal with big blokes barging. As that is 90% of the football and the teams in this division it's going to be a long winter seeing how long Town can hold on against bullyballing.

We just looked weak, physically and mentally. We've been sussed.

Direct without being long ball, quick and occasionally slick they were Bromleyesque in their muscular manballing. They are a very good non-league team indeed.

The Bogle-ish Ndlovu is the centre-forward we know we need in the squad. It's all very well being technically gifted but a bit of beefiness to bludgeon through the barriers is sometimes necessary. Kanu had Rodgers on toast and Glover was a busy little bee, whilst Oforborh was a man mountain McEachran could neither scale nor circumnavigate and ended up being crushed by an avalanche.

There were hints of defensive wobbliness, but as Barnet were up against some Emo kids busking for change, it's impossible to assess their true worth. On this showing they are a typical promoted team – dangerous for half a season until everyone works them out and they finally fade away from the play-off puddle.

Sometimes Town are bad, they can really make you mad and they’re a team that just make you swear and curse.

Mr B Atkinson

This man was dangerously competent, never falling for false falls and penalty calls. Perfectly fine, perfectly clear and consistent and perfectly placed to see what he needed to see. If anything he leaned to the cream: 8.365

10 hours, 272 miles for a curdled cream tea, whipped into a lather and served on toast.

In a word: abject