Venue:
Blundell Park
att:  3605  away fans:  93
Extra info
Grimsby
2
  Gordon 9
  Pinault 24
New signing grabs our second goal in a row and there's a mystifying and sad incident involving Diop and Conway.
Harriers
1
  Matias 71
  harriers-online match report
Saturday 20th November 2004 
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Pedro scores on his debut


A disastrous first half saw the Harriers survive an opening salvo from Grimsby that could easily have given them three goals before they finally went into the lead in the ninth minute with one from Dean Gordon.

Thomas Pinault added a further goal fifteen minutes later and a cricket score looked to be on the cards.  Thankfully the Harriers came out for the second half a much stronger unit and the threat was stopped.

The game started with new signing Pedro Matias on the bench along with Simon Russell.  He had been dropped in favour of Jesper Christiansen even though he had warranted a start on his last couple of games.

Also back for us was Simon Brown now fully recovered from a cracked shin.  He replaced Ian Foster, out for a couple of weeks with an ankle injury.

Making a return back to one of his former clubs was Caretaker Manager, Shaun Cunnington.

As mentioned at the start of this report Grimsby went on the offensive right from the kick off when Jason Crowe saw loan keeper Ryan Clarke well off his line but, luckily for us, the ball went over the bar.  Colin Cramb then had a double chance when first he saw his shot hit the underside of the bar and then his header went over the bar.

The Reds were visibly struggling against an attack minded Town and they just couldn't cope with it.  Again Abdou Sall was having a shocker of a game and Chris McHale was having to cope by himself most of the time.  Something had to give and it did so in the ninth minute.

Cramb fed the ball to the un-marked Dean Gordon and the big man made no mistake in crashing the ball past Clarke in the Harriers goal.

Thankfully Gordons' attempt at scoring a second goal soon after was straight at the keeper and easily dealt with.  Cramb also had another chance but his spectacular overhead kick was just over.

Andy Parkinson was next up in the queue when he was faced with a one on one with the Harriers keeper but to Clarkes credit he managed to narrow the angle down and force the Grimsby striker wide.  When he finally managed to pass the ball to Dean Gordon the scorer of the opening goal totally fluffed his chance and missed the ball completely.

The second goal came soon after that and again it was down to defensive errors.  Pinault collected the ball on the edge of the area and from twenty yards out he sidefooted the ball into the net via the post.

Diop was the first to try and attempt a comeback for us when his shot went well over the bar.  At least he tried.

That was it for the first half except for a bucketful of chances for Grimsby from Parkinson, Cramb (2) and Jones and the incident between Diop and Jimmy Conway.

Minutes before the end of the half Diop went down in the area clutching his ankle.  He managed to get off the pitch but when Conway rolled up to treat him he somehow trod on Diops ankle and made the Frenchman scream in agony.  Words were exchanged and Conway walked away without saying a word.

Diop was left there all by himself and no one came to treat him.  Not one of his team mates spoke to him, no first aider came to his rescue, no Gary Barnett and Conway never returned.

Simon Russell was immediately sent on to replace him and when the whistle blew for the end of the half Diop hobble back to the tunnel by himself with the Grimsby fans applauding him.

This disgraceful episode will no doubt be blamed on Diop and Conway will again see his character un-blemished.  Diop will un-doubtedly be leaving the club at some point this week and the Board will say they have done the correct thing in disciplining a player.

I say they should be ashamed of themselves in treating a human being worse than an animal and really need to take a good look at themselves and the position of responsibility they're in.

I await the referee's report with interest.


HT. 2 - 0

The second half was a complete reversal of the first period.  We bought on Pedro in place of Jesper and straight away we looked more dangerous up front.  Defence was still a bit dodgy though.

It was Matias who led the way with a quick shot on goal that the Grimsby keeper was late to see but he still managed to stop it.  We then saw a free kick on the edge of the box taken by Dean Keates but the ball was fired well wide.

Simon Brown, now playing in the space vacated by Diop, was unlucky when he saw his shot hit the foot of the post.

Grimsby were still not going to give the game away and Sestanovich ran the full length of the pitch before laying the ball off to Jason Crowe.  He failed to connect properly and we had a lucky let off.

Three quarters of the way through the game and we got what was to be our only goal of the game and only our second away League goal all season.  Pedro saw his chance and let fly with a shot that flashed into the top of the net from the edge of the area.

His Harriers team mates didn't congratulate him.

Darryn Stamp had a good chance to open his account just after but his shot went straight at Williams.

Grimsby were now happy to just sit out the remainder of the game and hold on to all three points.  Us? we're now four points adrift following wins for both Cambridge and Shrewsbury and things are looking grimmer than Grimsby.

There is obviously dis-content in the club, amongst both players and staff, and some Welsh bloke needs to stand up and make his feelings known.

Mr Newton CANNOT just sit and watch this club degenerate into the laughing stock that is plunging headlong into non-league football.

Act now, before it's too late.


FT. 2 - 1

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Grimsby  subs   cards      Harriers  subs   cards 
Williams   Clarke  
Whittle     Cooper  
McDermott     Sall  
Jones     Beswetherick  
Gordon     McHale  
Crowe     Bennett  
Pinault     Brown  
Bull     Keates  
Parkinson     Stamp  
Cramb     Diop  
Sestanovich     Christiansen  
SUBS:       SUBS:    
Fraser     Lewis  
Coldicott     Jenkins  
Young     Burton  
Hockless     Matias  
North     Russell  

REFEREE:
Mr A Leake
Lancashire

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