Winning Ugly

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 20/12/2020

GRIMSBY ending their losing streak with a hard-earned win over rivals Scunthorpe at Blundell Park. The Mariners went back to basics, abandoning their erstwhile style of playing out from the back, reverting to a traditional 4-4-2, playing longer balls into the channels and less possession in their own half.

The new style certainly reduced the defensive mistakes as the Mariners spent a lot less time with the ball in their own half. The game's only goal came from a corner, with man of the match MattiePollock bundling the ball into the net midway through the first half.

Although the match was far from entertaining, it meant the Mariners got one over their neighbours in the first derby of the season and also pulled further away from a bottom two they had rapidly been dropping towards.

Ian Holloway made five changes for the visit of Scunthorpe. James McKeown, Filipe Morais, Luke Spokes, Kyle Bennett and Montel Gibson all came into the side, with Hewitt playing in central defence in place of the suspended Waterfall.

After a scrappy first twenty minutes in which defences dominated Town took the lead from a corner. The ball was flicked on at the near post and Howard got a hand to the initial attempt with Pollock bundling in the rebound to put Town 1-0 up.

Scunthorpe should have equalised five minutes later from their own corner but Onariase headed wide with the goal at his mercy.

Both sides made several substitutions in the second half which was a bitty stop-start affair with lots of free kicks, but neither side coming close to scoring.

Town's new-found solidity gives them something to build on for the next game when another struggler, Bradford, come to Blundell Park.

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