Grimsby 2-0 Wrexham : Match Report!

By: Jake Olley
Date: 01/04/2006

6057 Mariners fans saw Town cement their promotion chances even further after a 2-0 win at home to Wrexham. Jake Olley brings you his view of the day's action.

On a perfect afternoon for football at Blundell Park, Russell Slade made three changes to the team after the passionless performance against Lincoln. Gary Croft dropped to the bench with captain John McDermott returning from family bereavement. Surprisingly Ciaran Toner wasn't involved and Marc Goodfellow made his home debut. The third change was many people's "Player of the Season" Rob Jones coming in for ex-Lincoln defender Ben Futcher.

After five minutes home debutant Marc Goodfellow tested Wrexham keeper Michael Ingham who ironically turned down Grimsby in the summer in favour of a move to the Welsh side.

Then as the game dragged on slightly it was Wrexham who had one of the moves of the game as the ball was played from flank to flank before a fantastically whipped in ball from the Wrexham right side resulted in a brilliant header from McDermott to send the ball behind his own goal and keep the score level at the expense of a corner.

As Grimsby battled for the lead they failed to threaten too much until Marc Goodfellow played in a good ball towards Gary Cohen only from what appeared to be a Wrexham hand to stick out and divert the ball elsewhere only for referee Trevor Kettle to signal no penalty despite appeals from players and fans.

The ball was mostly played in the middle of the park with Wrexham trying to grab a hold on the game as they searched to keep their play-off hopes alive. These hopes took a dent when Gary Jones picked up a loose ball from Curtis Woodhouse and fired past Michael Ingham's left side to give the Mariners a goal lead to the delight off the 6,058 fans. After this the Mariners never seemed to look back and looked to go on from there.

After that as the Mariners tried to kill off the game when Michael Reddy got past the Wrexham defence only to be pulled down and see the referee signal a throw-in to the Welsh side. This seemed to be the trend of the referee as he persisted in showing a blind eye to clear fouls on the Mariners' top scorer. Though to the credit of the referee he did let off Curtis Woodhouse with a challenge which looked a stone wall yellow card.

Half Time: Grimsby 1-0 Wrexham

In the second half Russell Slade surely was the happier manager of the two but would have been concerned with only having the one goal lead and Wrexham's clear ability to get the ball down and play football.

Town though would have been the happier side for the first few minutes as the ball stayed central and, with Bolland and Woodhouse looking solid, it was Town's game to lose rather than Wrexham looking like blowing the Mariners away.

On fifty five minutes Town winger and brave heart Gary Cohen was booked for a poor challenge in which he came out the worse and it forced him to go off with a knock, only to be replaced by the boo boys' champion, Andy Parkinson.

Parkinson immediately did his reputation no good when he hit a great chance to play in Reddy a little too hard to the disappointment of players and fans.

The linesman then made an awful decision which denied Town the chance to make it two when the ball was played in towards Goodfellow in a offside position only for him to stop and jog back from the play with his back to the goal to allow Reddy to run onto it, only for the Linesman to raise his flag and keep the score at 1-0.

The linesman also minutes later denied the Mariners a goal as left back Tom Newey beat two leggy Wrexham players and squared the ball for Gary Jones to tap in easily only for it to be disallowed.

The Mariners then suffered their biggest scare as Wrexham punted a long ball into the box which was flicked on only for returning hero Rob Jones to head the ball fantastically over for a Wrexham corner.

With not long remaining it was Mark Jones who hit a sweet strike just over the visitors end to keep the score the same and maybe keep the points in Grimsby. This then became reality on eighty eight minutes when Michael Reddy held off one defender to latch on to a Gary Jones flick on and slot home past keeper Ingham. This really did signal the end of the game and handed Town a vital three points which surely puts promotion in their own hands.

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