The Official Grimsby Town Match Thread (Sponsored by a home fixture on 14th Feb "for all your Valentine's gift needs") | Vital Football

The Official Grimsby Town Match Thread (Sponsored by a home fixture on 14th Feb "for all your Valentine's gift needs")

HerrLjunga

HerrLjunga

Vital 1st Team Regular
Gills are swiftly back in action tonight after a disheartening defeat to Mansfield on Saturday, opponents Grimsby make the long trip down from North Lincolnshire to Priestfield looking to bounce back from their own weekend defeat.

The Gills recent form has been positive, averaging two points a game across our last five despite losing to the Stags, while the Mariners for the same period are on a run of lose, win, lose, win, lose...ah. Here's hoping we can snap them out of that run tonight to send the romantics packing Priestfield home in a happy mood.

Neil Harris has mentioned mixing things up for tonight. Gills have maintained impressive consistency of team selections in recent weeks after a season of casting about for any sort of line-up that could try and get a result. However, alarm bells will have rung on Saturday as the midfield was frequently outfought and outflanked and some of our new arrivals will be champing at the bit to show what they can do from the off. What price a start for George Lapslie tonight?

Grimsby currently sit in 17th, nine points clear of us and will probably be safe for another season in League Two having only returned to League football last May after a brief dalliance with non-league. Paul Hurst's side also have several games in hand on surrounding teams as a result of their fantastic run in the FA Cup which has taken them to the Fifth Round, despatching Plymouth, Cambridge, Burton and Championship Luton along the way to set up a winnable tie against Premier League strugglers Southampton. Their 3-0 defeat of Luton was especially impressive.

The Mariners saw five new arrivals before the transfer window closed, one of whom opened his account for the club in their last away game, a 0-3 win at Crewe. I refer to Tom Dickson-Peters, who ghosted around on loan for us last season, looking as likely to find the net as Lewis Walker currently does. If he scores against us tonight, I resign my football fandom.

My first ever Gills defeat (in just my second game 🤣) was a home match with Grimsby in March 1990, Steve Lovell netting a late consolation as we went down 1-2 at Priestfield.

The last two meetings between the two sides at Priestfield have produced a much better outcome for us Gills fans, both 3-0 wins, the first of those virtually 20 years ago to the day on 15th February 2003.


Our last meeting was in September 2008 and featured a real collector's item, a goal from the reviled Mark McCammon.


Enjoy the game tonight, not sure whether I'll be tuning in or trying to earn (and then spend 😜) some brownie points with the long-suffering FrauLjunga. Hopefully we'll see a decent crowd in and Gills return to winning ways!

COYG!
 
Top post !
A minor change in midfield is on the cards.
Tonight I shall be drinking good old Sheps Spirfire in solidarity with my Kent comrades.
I did the full monty this morning with flowers, card and Prosecco so have accrued enough brownie points to watch on Ifollow.
 
I'll be very disappointed if we don't win this one by a couple of goals. After a great run of away performances at the start of the season Grimsby have lost 5 of 6 in the league away including a 5-0 at Swindon.

The key will be us setting after them from the outset. We can't afford to be as slow out of the blocks as we were v Crawley as if they go ahead I've seen little yet under the new regime to suggest that we could come back after going behind.

Hartlepool and Harrogate have both beaten them in recent weeks . We must do too.

COYG
 
Grimsby have a weird spot in my memory bank for being one of the loudest home support, perhaps surprisingly. I remember going there for a game in our promotion season 08/09 when we were comfortably in the play-offs and they were battling against the drop. They must've had a deal on as the place was packed out and the noise was something else. I think our team were as surprised as us fans as we got walloped 3-0 and could've been done for more.

Anyway, need at least 4 points from the next two games. 3 tonight sets us well on the way to that.
 
shotshy said:
Top post !
A minor change in midfield is on the cards.
Tonight I shall be drinking good old Sheps Spirfire in solidarity with my Kent comrades.
I did the full monty this morning with flowers, card and Prosecco so have accrued enough brownie points to watch on Ifollow.
Click to expand...
The full Robert Carlisle? Legend!
 
I was taken to see a Grimsby game by my father even before my first GFC match so it must have been around 1956/7. We were visiting my grandparents in Cleethorpes where he grew up. Grimsby had just taken to wearing red shorts ( I think they were the first English league club to do so ) which the locals did not appreciate.
They had a very left quick winger called Jimmy Fell -the old boy in the crowd next to me confided that 'he's like a fookin' rocket' .
All I remember is that the East wind off the Lincolnshire coast was fookin' cold
 
We better win tonight.

I just flew back to the country this morning and decided spur of the moment to come to the game tonight. Picked up my son and we started driving to Gillingham, leaving plenty of time so we could get a bite to eat and a beer before the game.

All was going smoothly until I started hearing a rattling to my right and I turned my head just in time to see my wing mirror fall off and disappear behind me. I'm in my van so now I can't see anything behind me. Attempting the M25 would now be suicidal.

So I've dumped the van and we're on a train. Should just about make it to the ground in time for kick off. But it'll be the early hours before I can get my son home on the train.

Then tomorrow I've got a funeral to attend in London.So it'll be Thursday before I can think about retrieving my van and replacing the wing mirror.

So like I said, we better bloody win tonight. I'll be able to square it in my mind if we do, it'll have all been worth it. But if we don't play well and get beaten I'm gonna feel really quite sick.

COYG!
 
Jet lagged as f#ck but after being abroad for Crawley and Mansfield it's great to be back for a floodlight football fix. Tough game (as they all will be now) but a win should finally squeak us out of the sphincter of the bottom 2.
 
Buddha said:
We better win tonight.

I just flew back to the country this morning and decided spur of the moment to come to the game tonight. Picked up my son and we started driving to Gillingham, leaving plenty of time so we could get a bite to eat and a beer before the game.

All was going smoothly until I started hearing a rattling to my right and I turned my head just in time to see my wing mirror fall off and disappear behind me. I'm in my van so now I can't see anything behind me. Attempting the M25 would now be suicidal.

So I've dumped the van and we're on a train. Should just about make it to the ground in time for kick off. But it'll be the early hours before I can get my son home on the train.

Then tomorrow I've got a funeral to attend in London.So it'll be Thursday before I can think about retrieving my van and replacing the wing mirror.

So like I said, we better bloody win tonight. I'll be able to square it in my mind if we do, it'll have all been worth it. But if we don't play well and get beaten I'm gonna feel really quite sick.

COYG!
Click to expand...

Since you've sprung for it, try to enjoy the train. Less stress, more chat.
 
I'll be there tonight, for the first time in the Harris era. If you believe in jinxes then I'd better apologise now, as it's seven years and 12 games since I last saw the Gills win. (The 5-1 against Fleetwood under JEd, RIP, since you ask. Another one like that would be nice.) Nearly up there with MissLjunga.

I don't show favouritism: it's nine games and counting since I saw any league team win at home: not just the Gills but also Southampton, Brighton, West Ham and QPR. Five wins out of the last 30.

That kind of run has to end some time, right?

Actually I have a bit of a soft spot for Grimsby, like us a smallish club from a football backwater and an industrial town that's seen better days, although at least they have some decent local rivalries: Hull, Scunny or Donny depending on which division they happen to be in. They used to have a fans' site called the Fishcake whose brilliant match reports made me want them to succeed, and their current co-owner Jason Lockwood writes intelligent and balanced articles for the Guardian on the realities of lower division football. If I do jinx us, I can think of worse beneficiaries.

The good news is, my son's coming along and although only an occasional attendee, he has a much better record than me.

I'm looking forward to it. COYG!
 
Great shout by Harris to be fair and I didn’t think he would do it, good to rest Williams as McDonald bar Mansfield has been influential.
 
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