No Riot Act Says Lennie

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 19/09/2001

IT WAS more of an almighty 'kaboom' than a slow puncture as Grimsby Town's early season bubble exploded in their faces with their heaviest defeat for five years at Selhurst Park.

Their biggest test will come over the next few days and Lennie Lawrence must dig deep into his bag of tricks for a puncture repair kit after a sorry display that betrayed their start to the season.

So said Stuart Rowson in the Grimsby Telegraph today recounting the worst defeat Town have suffered for a long time.

However manager Lennie Lawrence refused to vent his spleen on the team or reading the riot act saying instead: "To be fair to the players, up until tonight they have done fantastically well so far this season and recently the cup win and the Forest game were fabulous efforts. But tonight we were never at the races, right from the first minute. We did things that we haven't been doing all year - conceding from set pieces and we were then caught on the break while we were chasing the game. I was disappointed with the way that we contributed to our own downfall - Palace will never get an easier three points than that. But I haven't slaughtered the lads because they had done so well before tonight."

On the changes he made Lennie said: "It was the biggest amount of changes I have had to make - we have had more or less the same starting XI this season. We lost heavily but I can't say that my ideal starting XI would have done any better."

"With all our experience, we hardly even mustered a shot for Matt Clarke to save. It all caught up with us - I don't know why it had to be tonight - but credit to Palace, they gave us a good hiding.Selhurst Park has actually been quite a lucky ground for me in the past - but no longer.

"We've just got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and on we go. Let's just hope that the bubble hasn't burst."

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