Richardson Blasts North

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 11/02/2008

CHESTERFIELD manager Lee Richardson blasted Town striker Danny North for diving to win his team penalties. North, who went down in the box in the away game at Chesterfield which led to the winning goal that day, did the same again on Saturday, which had Richardson fuming.

"The first turning point was another dive by their centre-forward. His (North's) dive at Saltergate was excellent but this one was even better, and the referee bought it and gave the penalty.

"Referees are far too easily influenced by a fervent crowd and it sticks in the throat because it happened at Saltergate. They've done us twice, in my opinion, unfairly."

Richardson did concede however that Grimsby were the better side and deserved to be in front when they got the opening goal from the spot.

"In fairness to them, they could have been in front at that time, but it is galling to concede that type of goal. We gifted them the second, which is always going to make life difficult.

"We got to grips with it better after that and had two or three chances to nick a goal before half time. We changed it at half time but were weak in the tackle before conceding the third goal.

"At 3-0 down after an hour it looked like we had no chance, but the way we played in the last half hour gave us a chance. With 10 minutes to go we looked likely to cap a magnificent fight-back but we conceded a second penalty. Roche is adamant that he hardly touched him.

Richardson thought Chesterfield did enough to get something from the game, despite conceding four goals.

"We certainly created enough chances to have won the game. Take out the first penalty and the disaster for the second goal, and it's another one of those games, " he said.

Grimsby manager Alan Buckley was delighted with his side's performance.

"That's probably the best we have played since I returned to the club, " said the Town boss, who saw his side extend their unbeaten run to ten games.

"It came against a decent team who have been in the top six, or thereabouts, for most of the season and they fancy themselves for promotion. I thought we totally outplayed them in the first half. Our football, our passing and our movement were a delight at times and it even had me applauding. I thought by the time we scored the first goal we should have already been two or three up on chances."

With recent performances generally being dour low-scoring affairs and a few of them having a large element of luck, Buckley was pleased to see Town start to play good football again

"It was harking back to the old days a bit for me watching them play as well as that."

Grimsby next take the field on Tuesday night when they head to Macclesfield.

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