The Bath Bogey Strikes Again

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 06/11/2011

GRIMSBY threw away a two goal lead in a match they were totally dominating against the division's bottom side. Two moments of madness in the second half gifted bath two goals. Town should still have won it after that as the ref sent a Bath player off, and Hearn missed a golden chance in injury time.

Until Bath won a penalty when Rob Duffy needlessly brought down Jones, the match was as one sided as you can imagine. Town were leading 2-0, but in terms of possession they totally dominated the first hour. After the penalty Town still looked in command, but then a ball played through to Canham split the Mariners' defence and McKeown raced out of his goal making it easy for Canham to launch the ball over him.

Canham turned hero to villain a few minutes later when he made a two footed challenge on Disley and received his marching orders. Grimsby had the chances to get a third but just didn't manage to get the ball in the net.

Once again Grimsby failed to beat Bath who twice now have come from two goals down to grab a point against Town.

The Town managerial team named an unchanged side for the game and it looked to have paid immediate dividends when Town opened the scoring on 12 minutes. Duffy forced a good save out of the 'keeper with a header from Wood's cross. The ball fell to Makofo who drilled it low past the 'keeper from a narrow angle.

Grimsby more or less camped in Bath's half for the first half hour, and Bath didn't even muster a shot on goal until 35 minutes (which went well wide).

After the break Makofo repeated his early goal, but this time scored with his head. Hearn set up Coulson with a Tony Rees-like backheel to run unchallenged into the box and he crossed for Serge to bullet a header into the net, much to his obvious delight.

With the game effectively won, Grimsby supporters started singing songs belittling the opposition players.

But it was a Town player who made the next mistake when Duffy needlessly hauled down Jones in the box. The Canham penalty was Bath's first decent chance of the whole game, and Town's superiority meant it would probably be just a blip. But then just over 10 minutes later Bath somehow were in front when McKeown needlessly rushed out of his goal and Canham guided it past him.

Town's likely victory seemed to be back on course when Canham received his red card from a very fussy referee. With nearly 20 minutes of playing time left Town carved out three good chances. Firstly Duffy headed wide from a free kick when rose unchallenged in the air. Secondly, Hearn missed the best chance of all from about 2 yards out when he made contact with Coulson's cross but couldn't control it enough to keep it down and somehow it went over the bar from point blank range. Finally a rare Coulson header skimmed the top of the cross bar at the death.

For some reason the managers chose not to make any substitutions until Elding came on practically at the end. With an extra man they could have played three up front, but they never took that option.

Grimsby played well for 80% of the game but made two stupid mistakes and got punished for them.

Townsend stood out for me at left back in the first half, and Makofo deserves credit for his goals.

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