Saturday Comes Too Quick Lately!!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 18/12/2001

ON Saturday, Grimsby Town visits Deepdale to take on Preston. This is a team that we usually enjoy meeting. A constant rival to Grimsby since they first entered league football, it has always produced an exciting encounter for the fans

But recently, the announcement of another game looming has done nothing more than produce a feeling of heightened anxiety among the fans who surely now must be the most despondent of all football fans.

So we can only hope that the players recover from the resounding defeat they suffered at the hands of Walsall last Saturday. A game described by manager Lawrence as "Our blackest day."

Commenting on the game and the players he continued: "This was a different type of test. In the past three weeks we have played against top teams, and we have hung onto their coat tails and made a game of it in each instance, and last week we did well," said Lawrence.

"It was all about desire, about two teams scrapping it out at the bottom, all about dealing with Walsall's power, pace and strength and we failed to do it lamentably - we were just not good enough.

"That is the biggest conclusion you can draw, you look at the team, you look at the players and they were not good enough on the day. They could not cope with the pace, strength and power. They played a fast, direct game, we knew they would do that, we were prepared for it, but we were totally unable to cope with it, there is no question of doubt about it.

"We might have got to half-time 0-0, but we offered very little as an attacking force. We were just brushed aside defensively. We were reasonable until the second goal went in and in the last 10 minutes we fell apart.

"There is no point trying to gloss over it, we have an absolute mountain to climb and at the moment I am limited with the players I can use."

"This was the acid test and it is painfully obvious we failed it, totally."

"There were problems all over the pitch, and it is a savage reminder of the statement I have made before. When we are fit and firing and at our best we will come and get a draw or maybe sneak a win, but we are four or five players short of a best team, we have had a bad week, we were not at our best, and that will happen unless the playing squad is strengthened. We are not in a position to do that and that is it, we just have to carry on with what we have got and roll our sleeves up - it is frustrating, but it is life."

Revealing to the Grimsby Telegraph that his only option was "One loan on a short term basis."

On Marlon Broomes, Lawrence said: "No comment. He's gone that's it. All I know is that was a disappointment, that is the end of it and here we are."

"If I said to all the players 'are you good enough for this standard?' the answer would be 'yes'. It's all I ever read, all I ever hear, what they are going to do, that they can do this and that, but I didn't see any evidence of that."

It is in that mood that Town meet Preston. If Lawrence can sort out the players and get them back on track, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

These are tough times and now is the time for Lawrence to pitch all his knowledge and experience into the bag and turn things around. He surely cannot consider staying longer than the Preston game unless he gains at least a point which may grant him a reprieve.

Town fans will be hoping that the reprieve will come in the shape of 3 points, which we need to start climbing our way out of the relegation swamp!

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