Nil Nil to The Mariners: Swansea Report

Swansea City 0 Grimsby Town 0
19 Feb 2005, Coca Cola League 2

Town kicked off and sent the ball straight out of play for a throw-in midway into the Swansea half. I wrote that in the pub before the game, we all knew it was going to happen. We played a 5-3-2 formation, Crowe and Bull as raiding full backs, Whittle the man in the middle to meet everything, with Ramsden and Forbes tidying up if he didn't get a good enough contact on the ball. Coldicott, Fleming and Hockless scampering around in midfield and Reddy along with Gritton up front.

With their backs towards their adoring support, Town went about the business of strangling the Swans. First things first, Williams did not put a foot wrong all afternoon, his hands held everything and his positioning was also good, even his kicking was impressive.

Nothing of note happened during the first 10 minutes, because we didn't let it, our back five comfortable and calm, Coldicott getting his boot, body, ear or teeth onto anything that moved through midfield. Crowe had our first real attempt on goal, he raced through from the left and hit a long range effort which produced a flying save and our first corner, which came to nothing. The game settled down with neither side doing much at all, Hockless was obviously playing by virtue of his throwing ability, because no one passed to him, he just ran around a bit to keep warm.

Around the half hour mark we had a couple of corners, Whittle blasting high and wide after the first , he also had the last touch before the second one went tamely for a goal kick. There was then 10 minutes of all Town, we had a flurry, yes a flurry of half chances. Some would say, 'even a piece of sustained pressure' but I wouldn't. You will have noticed I haven't mentioned Swansea yet, well, there hasn't been any need too. Coldicott ever present in midfield, Fleming a constant sheep worrier, pity we were playing Swans though, Hockless waiting for the ball that never came. The back 5 still solid and organised, Reddy always available and lively, Gritton winning his challenges, all is well in the rose garden.

Just before half-time Swansea had their 5 minutes. Trundle, who had been well marshalled until now got into the box and fell over, as did some other bloke in a white shirt, the ref was unimpressed, we Town fans jeered accordingly, we were almost enjoying ourselves.

Half-time came and everyone had done a workmanlike job, the crowd was quiet and the Swans had not really troubled our goal once, overall, a good performance and we were winning on corners.

Remember Mad Max? The refreshments for the travelling hoards was a large Kenco Coffee Mug, completely surrounded by a huge metal grill, one poor guy dispensed drinks through a single slot large enough for a lady to get her hand through and extract a cup, if she squeezed it first. So the lads had to chat up the girls if they wanted a cup of the hot stuff. The turnstiles were designed by the same person, except you wouldn't have got a crushed coke can through the money gash provided. Because some of you are squeamish, I will not describe the toilets, but they obviously haven't spent much on them in the last 100 years or so.