04/12 Stockport 2nd Half

In the second half, I didn't see the second goal too clearly as I was up at the other end of the stand waiting to get a hot drink to help me thaw out. I've seen it on the telly and they were a bit lucky as a header cannoned off a player directly into the path of another Stockport player who was able to set up the diving No. 7 to score in the top corner. The Mariners then threw on a few subs including Livvo and Allen up front with Pouton in midfield (Ashcroft, Buckley, and Coldicott went off). Livvo added much needed strength up front and five minutes from the end broke through a few challenges by sheer determination and set up the unmarked Donovan. Donovan was about 6 yards away from goal with only the keeper to be yet managed to hit the ball 10 yards over the bar instead of scoring. He held his head in his hands. A couple of minutes from the end, neat interplay on the edge of their box led to our goal - the ball was laid off to HAMILTON who smacked it in from the edge of the box.

In summary we didn't play very well against a poor team yet still should have managed a draw. The referee and his assistants were very poor in general and I'd guess that easily 90% of so-so decisions were given to the home side. The Mariners must have been caught offside over a dozen times although at least two or three of these occasions in the first half were incorrect from what I could see. Ashcroft and Buckley played very poorly and an amusing incident occurred when Buckley was taken off. One of the Grimsby fans in the crowd shouted abuse at Buckley Senior and booed Buckley Junior. This obviously roused our beloved manager's paternal instincts as he turned towards the man shouting abuse and told him to "F*ck off, you b*stard". I found this quite amusing.

As for the rest of the players, they ranged from adequate to quite poor and I was just pleased that Stockport didn't have Angell playing. None of our starting line-up was 6 feet or taller and if they had been much good in the air we could have been hammered.