History to Repeat Itself?

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 21/01/2007

HAVING set the record on Saturday for the worst ever run of consecutive goalless defeats in their 128 year history, the Mariners are just one match off a new all-time low. Never in a total of 4,791 games have Grimsby gone seven consecutive matches without scoring a goal.

Only twice have the Mariners gone for six games on the trot without finding the back of the net. The first time was at the end of the 1999-2000 season, ironically shortly before Alan Buckley was controversially sacked as Grimsby manager.

The sequence of appalling results (which was better than the current run as it included two 0-0 draws), was famously commemorated in the karaoke Billo's Quest.

The sequence of games from 2000 is as follows:

The run was finally ended with a 1-1 draw against Man City, when Alan Pouton scored an equaliser for the Mariners. The damage was done though and Alan Buckley lasted just six more games before the Town board had had enough.

And today's sequence is:

To put the new run into context, only on five occasions have the Mariners gone one worse and experienced five consecutive games without scoring a goal: 1904-05, 1982-1983, 1986-1987, 1998-1999 and 2001-2002.

Town's next game is against basement club Torquay, who conceded five goals on Saturday, so in theory Grimsby should stand an excellent change of breaking the voodoo.

Otherwise if the sequence of defeats continues history could well repeat itself and Alan Buckley could once more be sacked, as happened when he was last at the club in August 2000.

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