Who Said What Post Match!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 04/01/2005

THERE were plenty of things said after the 3-0 win against Cambridge United with the managers seeing things differently and the fans too. The Fishy looked at the response from both sides.

Rob Newman who deputised for manager Steve Thompson, who was unwell, rued the five minute spell that cost United dear.

Newman was on the bench with youth team manager Ricky Duncan and explained that Thompson and his family are suffering from a viral infection: "He thought it would be best not to come today, obviously not just for his own health but also not to spread it among the players as well.

On the Cambridge United official website he said; "He told me what to do and I tried to put it into place, and basically the players went out onto the pitch and I was just trying to steer it."

Gifting Grimsby two soft first half goals would not have helped the manager's recovery and Newman admitted, "It didn't make me feel any better, either! But that's the way it is at the moment.

"I thought we started well and we were in the game. We were defending against a strong wind but we had two good chances, and then in the space of five minutes we were two-nil down. Grimsby weren't playing well really but it was our fault, our indecision in our own box, and that's something we've been guilty of before.

"I've seen four games now and goals have been given away by our own frailties. You need some strong characters out there now and that's what I've just told the players," added the former Norwich defender.

"At half-time we were two-nil down and the game's over, but to be fair to our players they've come out and they've had a good go in the second half. I've said to them 'why wait until you're one-nil or two-nil down before we have a go?'.

"It's easy to play when you're two-nil down because people don't think you're going to win so you do something then that you wouldn't do at nil-nil. Confidence is low because of where we are in the table and they're trying to do everything perfectly at the moment, and what's needed at the moment is some ugly passes.

"There's a lot of ugly passes in this division, but in this division they're effective nine times out of ten and we don't do that often enough. In the second half when we put them under pressure in their last third we did ever so well. We didn't create that many real clear-cut chances, but we had the ball in their area and that gives you a chance."

United had a penalty appeal turned down when Jermaine Easter was brought down on the hour, Heath and Webb both drew saves from Anthony Williams, and several shots and headers were off target by differing degrees, and Newman admitted, "What we really need is one to go in off someone's backside at the moment because we're always trying to score pure football goals.

"It's got to be 'pass, pass, pass, with a beautiful finish in the corner' and that doesn't happen at this level. It doesn't happen very often in the Premiership and certainly not at this level, so we've got to keep on in there and we've got to stay positive.

"There are plenty of games to go, there's plenty of points to be played for, and if they show the same appetite as they did in the second half - as they have done over the last three or four games when I've been here as well - you cannot question their work ethic.

Grimsby Town assistant manager Graham Rodger told Mariners Net; "If Arsenal had scored that goal we would be watching re-runs of it on Sky Sports for weeks."

"And Martin Gritton's goal was a quality finish and that will give him confidence. This will give us something to build on. They came at us but our keeper and defence nullified their threat."

On Martin Gritton he said; "It does a couple of things. It gets him off the mark and it gives him a bit of confidence. It also sealed the game for us. It was a particularly well taken goal. We felt that the game would open up in the last 15-20 minutes with all the football that the teams have played. They had to try and get back into the game which left a lot of room for us. We just saw that bit of quality from Gritton there."

"I'm very pleased. It is three and a half if you include the Rochdale game. It has given us a base to work from. It is okay playing some fantastic football and should win games and losing. We are possibly not creating as many chances as we did earlier in the season but we are not conceding goals."

But the Town fans seemed divided.

On the Fishy Message board BIGChris Posted;

The positives were we won 3-0, Fleming had a reasonable game and it was good to see Ramsden back playing as he can. Pinault was something we have been missing- a footballer.

Overall though it was a shocking game with us having less possession when playing at home to the bottom side in the Football League! Cambridge had so much of the play but other than once in the first half they hardly caused Williams into a save. At the other end their keeper looked total cack and their defence in general wasn't great.

A 3-0 win and I have to say I was bored to tears.

Senile or realistic? I don't know!

Xtratime_com said:

It was a very poor showing from Town. Still, Cambridge weren't good enough to beat us on a bad day. They must be gutted though, if they had a decent defence and a half-decent finisher they would have been in with a shout.

01472 came back with;

What do you want?

last week we tried and tried and didn't break down their defence. This week we score three and even have Flash blow a huge chance as well.

Personally, I don't care if we only have one shot all game and win 1-0. A win is a win.

lower_smiths summed it up with;

Thats Gy fans for you though mate, never happy unless they have something to complain about.

We were far from outstanding but 3 goals and 3 points will do nicely. Division 3 football is all about scraping out results, not playing like AC Milan.

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