Craig Armstrong Interview

By: Jake Olley
Date: 14/05/2006

CRAIG Armstrong arrived at Grimsby shortly after the sacking of Paul Groves. His first two games were wins, including the 6-1 defeat of Barnsley. Then Nicky Laws arrived and the rest is history.

Craig, you're at Cheltenham and have been since joining in the summer, how are you enjoying that and how does it compare to other clubs you've played for?

I am really enjoying it! It’s a small club but is well run with a good management team.

What’s your opinion on your season so far and what are your views on League Two as a whole?

We've had a good season so far. We had a couple of very good cup runs only going out to teams higher in the leagues. The standard isn't bad as I first thought. I think the quality at players at the higher divisions has had to drop due to the influx of foreign players.

Now onto your time with the Mariners, what were your memories of your loan spell and would you have stayed given the chance?

My memories were good ones apart from the first day when I came into the ground to see the roof leaking. But the lads were brilliant and tried to play decent football. Scoring against Barnsley was great and yes I would have stayed given the chance.

What were your memories of the management and coaching techniques at Town. We ask because that was a huge complaint of Nicky Law?

Everything was going in the right direction under Graham Rodger until Nicky Law came in! It was short and sharp when Nicky came in, he made too many changes that didn't need to be made. I think resulting in relegation.

Could you ever see your self putting on the famous black and white shirt again or do you think you'll be at Cheltenham for a long time to come?

You can never say never. If my time changed at Cheltenham then why not? The club is going in the right direction under Russell Slade and that shows in the results and them sitting around at the top of the league.

Who would you say your best mates at Grimsby were and do you still keep in touch with any of them?

I knew a couple of boys anyway, I played with Tony Crane and Iffy Onoura. Iffy left quickly while Tony struggled with injury.

Did you manage to catch the Mariners' Carling Cup matches and what did you think of the games?

I watched bits and bobs of both games and the Spurs result showed how far Grimsby has come. It was a massive scalp and they were unlucky against Newcastle. I would have loved you to win that one being a Sunderland fan!

And finally could you give us your best eleven players you've played with or against?

Goalkeeper: Mark Crossley
Defence: Garry Charles
Defence: Chris Lucketti
Defence: Jamie Vincent
Defence: Colin Cooper
Midfield: Steve Stone
Midfield: Ian Woan
Midfield: Scott Gemmill
Midfield: Kenny Irons
Attacker: Piere Van Haidonk
Attacker : Marcus Stewart

We'd also like to take this chance to thank Craig Armstrong who took time out from his busy schedule to do this interview for Town fans

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