Town Res 1 Scunthorpe Res 1

By: Martin Copass
Date: 08/10/2003

A windy day greeted Grimsby and near neighbours Scunthorpe as the two unbeaten teams met at Blundell Park in this afternoon's reserve team clash.

As expected, Iain Anderson started the game, with the aim to get himself fit for Saturday’s visit to Brighton, and with most of the starting XI having played in the first team at some time, a decent game was expected - especially as the visitors also fielded a strong line-up.

Unfortunately this was not the case, as a mixture of windy conditions and just plain bad passing led to there being few real chances from either side. Two tame early efforts from Jevons and Parker hardly troubled the keeper, and it was the same at the other end until a bit of invisible defending by the Town defence.

In the 16th minute, a free kick on the Scunthorpe right was floated into the box, and with the defence seemingly absent an easy close range header from Paul Hays gave the visitors the lead. The remainder of the half was a dour affair with very few chances and little in the way of a sign that Town may get back into the game.

Town began to press forward in the second half, and Phil Jevons went close with the best opportunity of the game so far. Shortly after, David Soames should have levelled the scores when he fluffed a one-on-one with the visitor's 'keeper which he allowed to be saved at his feet. Graham Hockless was the next to try his luck after some neat work on the edge of the box, and it was only now that Town were looking likely to get on level terms.

Two substitutions in a minute seemed to change the game with around ten minutes left. The 80th minute saw Phil Jevons replaced by Darren Mansaram and, within a minute of this, Town were level as David Soames smashed home a equaliser from just inside the 18 yard box. Next Giovanni Carchedi replaced Iain Anderson and Town continued to push forward in search of the winning goal. This would have been an injustice on a hard-working Scunthorpe side, which often had spells where they looked the better team. They nearly won the game, when a replica of their first goal was scored in the 89th minute, but fortunately for Town’s defence it was ruled out for offside.

The wind was probably the overall winner, as it seemed to get stronger as the game went on, although this was clearly a match between two unbeaten sides striving to protect their records, which they both managed to do and keeps both team in the top three of the table. Iain Anderson got through the game without any problems and must be in with a good chance of a recall for Saturday’s game on the South Coast.

Town. Pettinger, Ward, Parker, Hildred, Wheeler, Young, Anderson (Carchedi 81|), Bolder, Jevons (Mansaram 80), Soames, Hockless,

Subs not used, Hughes, Stares.

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