Town not at the Races

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 03/02/2018

GRIMSBY continued their winless run with a 1-1 draw against Cheltenham, although there were signs of improvements especially in the early part of the game in which The Mariners took the lead thanks to a debut goal for Simeon Jackson.

However, the Robins fought back and levelled with a free kick which Boyle netted from close range.

Simeon Jackson played up front alongside Jamille Matt and another new signing, Mallik Wilks, made his first start on the wing.

The Mariners got off to the perfect start when the Cheltenham defence failed to cope with a Summerfield ball and it came to Jackson to score from close range and put the Mariners in front in a game for the first time this year.

Cheltenham fought back though and Ben Killip had two be alert to make two good saves to keep his clean sheet intact.

There were brief protests in the crowd about the club owners in the 14th minute, but these were limited to a few individuals and quickly fizzled out. The timing proved unfortunate for the organisers with the Mariners winning at that point.

Town's game plan was again thrown into disarray when centre-back Danny Collins went down injured and was soon substituted. new signing Easah Suliman was not on the bench due to restrictions on the number of loan players in the squad, so Reece Hall-Johnson, who has just returned from a loan spell at Chester, had to come on at fullback with Zak Mills operating as an emergency centre back. Grimsby were never to recreate the rhythm of the early part of the game following the substitution.

Both sides had chances but the Mariners went into the break with a one goal advantage.

Cheltenham were the better side in the second half, which turned into a very stop-start game which lots of set pieces. The most noteworthy piece of action came when the referee was injured in a collision and there was a stoppage in play while he was treated by Town physio Dave Moore.

Inevitably the equaliser came from a set piece. Morrell floated the ball into the box and it was flicked through to Boyle who bundled it in from close range. Matters almost got a lot worse when Cheltenham missed an opportunity to score deep in injury time, shooting wide from in front of goal.

Town were the better side for the first quarter of the game, but Cheltenham, especially in the second half were the stronger team and in the end it was a welcome point for Town as it maintains the nine-point cushion to the bottom two.

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