Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 8 August 2026

League Cup (1)

Grimsby Town 1 Rogers (90+2)

Blackpool 3 Ennis (3), Bowler (58), Kouassi (90+5)

Attendance: 4,817 (510 away fans)

Well, he's a lovely chap, better take the opportunity to meet and greet the graceful glider before he's gone.

No-one particularly stood out. Some were perfectly fine and, had they remained on the pitch, would have had the invisible laurel leaves placed upon their carefully coiffed head. Yes, you Justin and Jamie. Some were perfectly adequate throughout, but they just did their jobs, so we'll keep that pink champagne on ice.

The big man was boiling underneath at this shoddy, sloppy soiling of the pre-League season record. Don't blame it on the current bogeyman though, he may boil over:

"We want this to be a league game next year, you can't get away with a lack of consistency throughout the 90 minutes…I'd rather this happened this week rather than next week…plenty of food for thought, hopefully gives them a kick up the bum as well."

What about the yellow elephant in the dressing room then?

"Harvey's out for a bit. Possibly. We have other priorities, Christy was good today, he wasn't at fault for any of the goals. His distribution was good, he got let down by people in front of him, that's the truth, you know, significantly let down. I understand the narrative, everyone's waiting to pile in on him. He made not one mistake today, not one. His level of performance was good. We've got to support him and keep working with him, we have other priorities. That doesn't say later on in the window if Harvey's still injured, if Christy's form dips and we can get better we wouldn't do a goalkeeper, the possibility's open to us. On today's showing he was very good, one of our better players."

He made one save Dave, that's what he does these days. Perhaps it's time we coughed up the dough to pay Jamestown for the goalie data too.

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The Seasiders supremo rolled out the modern management clichés for a full house on the bingo card:

"We shouldn't undervalue the win here, difficult place to come to…a really good away performance, we had to dig at times. Work on training pitch…really evident…after conceding no sign of sulking."

Effervescent Evatt carried off the big cuddly toy but didn't get carried away with his game saver's saves:

"There was one wow save. I'm a centre-back, so I am a bit of a keeper hater. They are there to save it."

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Ah, those ebony and ivory stripes, there's good and bad in every game. We learn to live with it and each other's varying tolerances of imperfection.

On the one hand only their keeper averted an avalanche of goals in the first half. On the other all the old familiar faces played down to their limitations, particularly the family favourites: Green, Cook and Vernam.

Vernam appeared today, rather than played today. Like an unspeaking extra he was frequently spotted near, but not involved in events, leaving Sweeney exposed to the marauding hordes. History repeats itself as a determined and semi-physical full-back saw Slim Charles haunted by his past and he rarely got past. It is an unavoidable fact that Greeny-Keiran-Green has looked all pre-League season more like the twiggy shrub Hurst planted than the flower Artell cultivated. Cookie? Less monster more munchkin, easily suppressed by the swinging Seasiders and looking his age.

Oh dear poor old Pym, less svelte than before, he Pymmed again like he did last Autumn. Blameless for the first, a contributing factor in both the others, he's giving off late career James McKeown vibes. We hoped for a Waterfallian redemption, we got a continuation. He may just be unlucky but the data is pretty stark, for a shot on target is rarely stopped. There's no point shouting at him, but the crowd silence is loud and clear and deafening. It's the nocebo effect in action.

Enough of the old, what about the new? Doyle was light years ahead of last week's version, a nifty nip and tucker now up to speed, whilst Morgan has a certain je ne sais quoi about him. He's direct and determined with some pace and power. Andrews? He's a big man but he not in shape for a start. The best one can say is that he was a visible Cook. Well, he is bigger.

Town could've won, but individual and collective limitations were exposed by a team in a higher division. There we are. One should always learn from one's mistakes.

They look like every team that goes up and comes down from our division – a standard third tier set of solid lads solidly following their solid plans. A bit bigger, slightly stronger, frequently faster. The usual style Town failed against last season.

Collectively they were a little loose but individually slightly more determined and slightly cuter than each and every homester. Overall they were slightly better than Wigan.

I don't want to slight them, these Blackpuddlers were no Black Puddings but ultimately they won because they had a goalkeeper who makes saves.

Initially waxing, but soon waning and wilting in the sun.

Mr N Hair

Now then Neil, the five second rule for undue delay at throw-ins. Let's look at the evidence. From minute three, the minute they scored, Blackpool dawdled and you only began the ostentatious finger count when they were eventually about to chuck it. In contrast for Town, who had no time to waste, the countdown started when anyone picked the ball up, messing up the Morgan Torpedo assault beyond the 90th minute.

An extremely low level preening nitwittery, but still preening nitwittery, no matter how subtle: 5.444

Slightly bigger men beat slightly smaller men.

In a word: enervation