One Final Push!

By: Dave Boylen
Date: 11/05/2006

AFTER having a day off work and replacing my head with a lot of positive thoughts about Grimsby Town, I have come to the conclusion that we are destined to go up through the play-offs.

Because nobody can suffer like we all did on Saturday in the theatre of Dreams (Blundell Park that is): only one minute to go to get automatic promotion and then it all went wrong for us. Still we knew that once we had to rely on other people in other parts of the country things were very dodgy indeed; the odds were all going to go against us, and that is what happened, cruel though it was it was. If only we had won some of those seven home games we lost at Blundell Park.

At least the football club will see some monetary value in the play-offs: the first game against Lincoln is going to be shown live on Sky, as I believe will be the game at Blundell Park. But there you go, the season goes on a little bit longer for the Mariners.

My only concern, and I have got to say this, the is attitude of certain players who are supposed to be on the way to other football clubs. Will they be giving it all the effort and stay focused in these important play-offs? When you have got your eye on another direction maybe you don't want to risk hurting your leg for Grimsby Town's cause, in a competitive play-off situation?

I think that the club have not made a offer to any of the Town players till they know which league they are in next season. Sensible financial common sense, or is it? The Football club cannot win in this situation, the lads who are out of contract, and let me say that I personally don't know who is out and who is still under contract. Footballers like to be knowing where they stand as regards contracts quite early at the latter stage of the season. Hopefully we can keep the majority of the squad because we have built something at Blundell Park this season and I will tell you what it is, it's called stability. We might not always agree with the manager and his tactics but we have had a good cup run and the Mariners have been in the top three all season. That to me is an improvement in what we have seen in the last four years.

The Mariners tumbled down the divisions and it only stopped when Russell Slade came to the club. If we can improve our home form no matter what league we are in next season I am sure that with the advent of a good Youth policy things can only improve. It is refreshing that under the Youth Development director Neil Woods we have now won a trophy, and this could be the start of maybe some players coming through the ranks once again at Blundell Park. That to me is a very important future for the Mariners.

Anyway back to the Mariners, hopefully Michael Reddy will be available to start the game at Lincoln because he frightens the living daylights out of nearly every defence in this league. Hopefully there is no set back to Rob Jones' pulled muscle that came on at Macclesfield. So I say to all the lads let's give it a final try and with the support of the Mariners' crowd they have been absolutely incredible the last few games, they were astounding at Macclesfield and against Northampton as well. Let's have a final effort from the supporters and the players and let's get out of this awful league!

I have to give tribute to all the faithful Mariner supporters who went to the Macclesfield game on Saturday. I do think the players can only be lifted by the support they get at these away games.

Dave Boylen

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