21/09 Charlton 2nd Half

By: Tony Butcher
Date: 23/09/2004

THEIR Young was replaced by Kishishev at half time. Apparently he used to play for Lena Lovets: his lucky number’s seven then. Town simply continued to steam roll these yellow sub-mariners. A couple of minutes in, Parkinson tapped the ball down the left for Reddy to chase.

Grimsby Town 0 Charlton Athletic 2 21 Sep 2004, Carling Cup Round 2 Reddy out-sprinted and out-muscled his marker, rolling in to the area along the bye-line. He looked up and crossed, the ball hit a defender’s bottom and trundled behind Sestanovich and just too far in front of Macca. Less happened inside the Charlton area, which suggests they did some tactical change to nullify the threat a bit, but not a lot, for Town dominated possession even more than they had in the first half. Sestanovich almost rattled Keily’s cage, but only rattled the hairstyles of the rich and famous in the Osmond Stand. Sestan’s massive curler from 25 yards dipped too late and nearly broke the girder keeping the scoreboard up. And then it came: what we expect, what we get, every game. The referee decided he hadn’t stamped his personality on the game. Parkinson was sent one against one with Perry down the centre left. Perry gallimored towards his own goal. Parkinson dropped his shoulder, jinked left, right, then left again, turning Perry Japanese, I really think so. Perry was dumped on his backside, Parky free, inside the area and... Parky down, all Town fans up, expectant, furious as play was waved on. You know how to whistle ref? You put your lips to together and blow. There was only one Mariner in Town who didn’t believe it to be a penalty. Charlton broke down their left with Jeffers almost being played free behind the defence, but Whittle oozed him away as Macca came back to assist in cleaning up this minor dog fouling moment. Aaaaah, Macca, pure Macca, the years rolled away, quality will out, Jeffers was dispossessed easily, so he fell. Compounding his original felony, the referee gave Charlton a free kick. Fleming acted as the mouthpiece for the crowd, informing the referee of a few home truths, using words of one and sometimes two syllables. And he was booked. The free kick was rubbish, by the way. Murphy rolled it to Johannson, who played it back to...Crowe. Town broke away, Town crossed, Parkinson was blatantly pushed in the back. Nothing given. A couple of minutes later Crowe made his way towards Keily as he awaited a dropping ball. A big yellow hip emerged to barge Crowe into the goal. Nothing given. The crowd were not enamoured with the ref, for he was giving Town free kicks in the middle third, but everything to Charlton near each goal. Still, at least he was enjoying himself laughing and joking with these stars. Jeffers was offside. There we are, Charlton’s moments of danger, the full gamut of their attacking from A to B. They hadn’t had a shot yet. Hockless, whilst warming up near the Police Box, ran on the pitch to retrieve the ball. There you are, a season’s first to keep the children happy. Hockless on the pitch. Town pinned Charlton back with passing, passion and precision. A flood of crosses, a torrent of crosses, wave upon wave of Town attacks. Almost and nearly, not quite, it just wasn’t falling for Town. A corner dropped, Macca let fly, the ball clearing all. Sestanovich dribbled, crossed, the ball was blocked near the line. A save, a clearance? A scramble, panic in the streets of London. Time ticking away, Crowe replaced by Bull with about 15 minutes left. Jeffers was offside again. "Arsenal reject" sang the singing ringing tree corner. How harsh to heckle Crowe when he’d played so well. With just over ten minutes to go Charlton had a break. That’s really nice for them, having come all this way and never seen the ball. And nice for us too to actually see these stellar visions of manliness within ear and eyeshot. Oh, this looks dangerous.

Grimsby Anthony Williams Justin Whittle Dean Gordon Greg Young John McDermott Terry Fleming Thomas Pinault Jason Crowe Ashley Sestanovich Michael Reddy Andy Parkinson   Subs Stacy Coldicott 85 mins Graham Hockless 84 mins Ronnie Bull 75 mins Paul Robinson Clint Marcelle   Attendance 5,735   Referee Andre Marriner (Birmingham)   Division Two League Table Reports/Fixtures Squad Stats Top Scorers Previews Predict-o-Meter   Man of the Match Vote for your Man of the Match Your Name (optional) Your Email Address (optional) Your Man of the Match Pick a player Bull Coldicott Crowe Fleming Gordon Hockless McDermott Parkinson Pinault Reddy Sestanovich Whittle Williams Young Nominations count towards the Player Of The Month shortlist.

Lisbie (who’d come on for Johannson) sprinted away down the middle from the half way line, pursued by Pinault. Sufficiently harried he passed the buck, the ball making its way to Jeffers, suspiciously in front of the last Town player. Offside? He always had been before. JEFFERS, inside the area, took one touch, awaited Williams and carefully lifted the ball across and into the bottom right hand corner from a narrow angle. And now he was a "Scouse reject". Or should that be a "Scouse scoring reject". Third shot of the game, second goal. What a shame, but shows why they cost millions and ours were found at the Toll Bar car boot sale. That’s an awful lot of frozen prawns to sell, Chairman John.

Game over then? Yeah, really. Town continued to attack, continued to pepper the Charlton goalmouth, but same old, same old. Sestanovich raiding on the right, crossing, blocked near the line, rebounding to Fleming. A leaping, hooking volley from the edge of the area trumbled towards the bottom left and corner. Keily somehow flappily scooped the ball away. Another rminute another Macca shot, cutting infield and from near the corner of the box he flailed a shot high through the area, just missing the angle of right post and bar. Sigh, is there nothing we can do to score?

No.

With about 7 minutes left Hockless and Coldicott replaced Sestanovich and Pinault. The towel had been thrown into the ring. Hockless was greeted with shock and awe by his admirers. That doesn’t include the Charlton players, who were rather pleased to see a little boy arrive to play with the adults. His first contribution was to dibble about 25 yards out and lose the ball to Lisbie, Two passes later Jeffers was putting the ball into the net. Nah, offside again. In injury time Fleming made a terrible back pass towards Williams, succeeding in setting Euell free in the middle of the penalty area, 15 yards out. Euell lobbed Williams and cleared the bar. Euell, yes, he came on for the last 20 minutes or so and made a major contribution to Charlton safety. Fleming had run out of steam so Big Jase was able to do a lot of late runs from midfield. Still counting those shots?. Not many, eh?

Have we finished yet? Yes we have. Town got the ovation their general play deserved, Charlton the win they didn’t deserve, Mendonca the love of the Pontoon as he walked to the Main Stand. Charlton had been outfought, outthought and outplayed, but they outscored Town. So everything was fantastic apart from the result. What’s changed Clive? Everything and nothing. No-one played badly and should be hailed for their effort and teamwork. Town looked great, missing just one ingredient. We need someone to score. Not much to ask, is it? Slade’s got the chicken, he’s got the noodles, now go and get the mange tout.

Nicko’s man of the Match

I’m looking inside a jewel box, I see Diamond Dean, Ruby Reddy, Amethyst Ashley and Garnet Greg. It’s like the Romper Room, isn’t it. Who could it be? They were all excellent, but Greg Young was rock steady in defence and a handful going forward with his barnstorming roadtrips and playmaking. But everyone gets a Macca (the other, less famous Macca)-like thumbs up and mentions in despatches. Don’t let the score line fool yer, we were ace.

Official Warning

A Marriner. Hardly noticed him in the first half, he was happy enough to stroll around sharing jokes with the players. But in the second he seemed determined not to make a "controversial" decision which affected the big team. He might as well have got his autograph book out. Not impressed. 4.301, even if he was right about the penalty.

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