FL2: Grimsby Town v Torquay 17th April 2010

massive well done to all at tufc,after lincoln home could not see where the next point was coming from.

13 points from 15 wow ;D

i dont think grimsby have got it in them to win 3 more games,i reckon barnet will flop over the line and grimsby will join darlo in the bsp,and do i care no,as long as it wasnt us

Oh well can't always get them exactly right, but another giant stride towards the April League Two Manager of the Month award for our very own Paul Buckle. A draw against Macclesfield will probably secure it but why settle for that the way we are playing, lets go for 4-1!! ;D

Well to be fair to their morons, our morons were hardly graceful by dishing out some daftness after the second and third goals were scored. Over the top celebrations and "one handed self lover" signs to the home supporters hardly help matters. Sometimes these simpletons need to remember that their actions can annoy people and in turn these people turn on regular fans outside the ground. Not really that clever all around and there was almost an unsuspecting Torquay fan getting into his Renault Megane who was a gnat's arse away from having 5 or 6 Grimsby lads laying into him and his car. One of them shouted "Is he mouthing off"? "No he's not" was the reply and thankfully they left him alone.

It's a shame really. The ground is situated in no mans land between Grimsby and Cleethorpes. It's not the most salubrious place I've ever seen and not one that made me feel really welcome after the 3 and bit hour drive up the A1(m) from London and going via Newark, Lincoln and the Red Arrows base and RAF Scampton. I picked up a mate from Cleethorpes railway station and his suitcase to store in my car during the game. The poor bugger was supposed to be off on honeymoon to Cuba tomorrow but the Volcanic Ash from Eyjafjallajoekull paid put to that but he found out his flight had been cancelled on the way up to Cleethorpes.

Not great news for him but we got to the ground nice and early. It doesn't have any away supporter friendly type pubs near the ground. The Imperial didn't look too friendly, the Leaking Boot just has the signs left and the Blundell Park Tavern looked a bit dodgy. We were joined by Nicky Wroe's Dad, Mum and Sister in the club car park. I then got chatting to a nice old fella wearing a Torquay Tie who had a touch of the Archie McPherson about him. It turns out that he does a lot of scouting for Paul Buckle. The guy was saying that he spends up to 3 hours after games making a detailed report on the opposition for Paul Buckle. He includes obvious details like speed, ability in the air and skill levels but he also makes mental notes on if certain players hide after being tackled. He said that PB was working under many constraints and said how difficult it is to get players to come down to play 4th division football for Torquay when a lot of young players at bigger clubs are quite happy to just pick up their wages and do nothing in reserve teams. I mentioned Guy Branston and he said it wasn't too hard to get him to come down as he's a single bloke with no real ties, which might also explain the number of clubs he's had over the years.

So to the game. Grimsby came at us hard for the first 5-10 mins roared on by a passionate crowd who unveiled homemade banners proclaiming "Make us proud" and "Now or never". Their pacey striker Akpro might have done better if not for his lead boots and a dreadful first touch. Their other striker Wright is a lazy beggar who doesn't challenge for the ball properly and throws himself to the ground in theatrics. Ellis got booked. A silly challenge but a warning would've been sufficient. Branston got himself booked for a late-ish challenge on their on loan from Hull winger Devitt (also played for Shrewsbury against us at the Prostar). Again you could argue a booking or a warning.

We were pretty much on the backfoot in the first half I thought although we looked much more composed, organised and dangerous. Benyon had a couple of headers and Zebroski looked dangerous down the right hand side.

In the second half we were much better. Carayol got into the game more. Wroe started to pull the strings and boss the game in the middle with good assisatance from Lee Mansell and Benyon was everywhere. I thought the penalty when it came was a bit soft. It was almost a bit too obvious so I was surprised when the ref gave it with help from the near useless linesman. Nicky Wroe stepped up and slotted home the penalty with aplomb.

The second goal was a classy goal. Muzzy looked to be going down a blind alley until he whipped in this unbelievable cross and Benyon steered it in past Nick Colgan. A striker's finish. Quite a few Grimsby fans got up and left.

Then the second Branston yellow. To my mind he got the ball. But off he went to the absolute pleasure of the home contingent. But were we compromised? Not a bit of it. Although they wasted a couple of gilt edged chances, we looked in control even with 10 men.

For the third Carayol hit the afterburners to get to the ball before a Grimsby player, headed into the danger zone and then shot past Colgan in the area who was probably keeping half an eye on Eunan O'Kane who made a clever run. Cue a dancing Muzzy with a beaming smile.

That was that. Akpro managed to volley over from 3 yards near the end. But the ref blew and then we had the charge of the moronic. MOTM award could go to one of Ellis, Wroe, Mansell, Benyon, Zebroski or Carayol.

I hope the FA will be lenient on Guy Branston. I hope he's not suspended for the Notts County game. The old scout told me that our Guy was looking forward to playing against Lee Hughes. "He's scared of me" Guy apparently told him. It might be one for the purists.

Anyway some photos from a very sunny North East Lincolnshire.
















You don't have any meat and potato pies?? He wasn't happy.



Excuse me please you're in my sun.



Hello Handsome!





Nicky Wroe slots home the penalty





Elliot celebrates the 2nd





Pickles gets his marching orders.







Michael Poke runs up the hill







Muzzy dances after he puts us 3-0 up!



An acceptable form of man-love



Bucks directs.



Lee Mansell thanks us for turning up!

Many thanks geddingtongull for your excellent match report and Chris for another first class report and pictures, I'm so pleased and proud you are members of the TFF.

As I was watching Ant play I decided not to listen to the game on the radio, I took the view what will be will be and I was not going to be changing anything that was happening hundreds of miles away.

I did catch the end of the game on the car radio on the way home and it was said the players would get off the pitch as soon as the final whistle was blown as it was feared there would be a pitch invasion.

The commentator them sounded very surprised Bucks was leading his players to go and thank our fans for their support, there did seem some concern for a few seconds that there were Grimsby fans on the pitch while our players were still on it.

I was relieved when he said our players had all left the pitch and I expect there might yet be a tale of one or more of our fans having problems getting to their cars safely.

If Grimsby do go down its over 100 years of being a league club that will be ended and they have been a much bigger club then we have ever been and played at a much higher level.

But then so are Oxford who I saw play at Wembley in a Milk Cup Final and I would never have believed they would end up in the BSP and struggle to get back out of it.

I heard an interview in the week given by the Darlington manager, the way he was talking it seemed he felt it was not going to be to hard to get back into the football league and Darlington might just spend the one season in the BSP.

Well it will be interesting to see how they get on next season and their manager might just be in for a bit of a shock and find its not going to be as easy as he thinks to get out of the BSP.

Thats why I get a bit angry at fans who have only wanted to knock Paul Buckle, he did the imposable as far as I'm concerned when you think about the size of our club and the other teams who were in the BSP with us.

How great to soon get into bed knowing you are going to sleep well and have league two football to look forward to next season.

I fully agree that some of our fans didn't help yesterday. I didn't like the you're going down with the Durham chants. The fact that achohol was being served so freely being part of the problem.

I had hoped that the days of having to take your teams shirt off after the game for fear of someone having a go at you were long gone.

I just hope that this was a one off and future away games can be watched and enjoyed as they should be.