Cod Almighty | Match Report
by Mike Worden
23 February 2008
Wrexham 0 Grimsby Town 0
The away end at the Racecourse was a fairly quiet place at ten to three. Groups of Town fans ambled in and made strategic decisions about seat choice. Some chose to sit right behind the goal and then realised that the goal seemed to be in the wrong place, at only three yards from the corner flag. Yes, this is Wrexham where the goals are moved into position just before kick off so that diving Phil Barnes doesn't ruin the turf in the real goalmouth. The thing is that tactic might work if there was actually any turf in the goalmouth, but the view from the away end resembled looking out from Cleethorpes prom across an expanse of sand. At the front the spotty teenagers stood, and occasionally, spat, in eager anticipation.
The main stand by contrast was very busy. Busy with little children whose incessant blowing of horns and chattering would continue after 5pm and busy with the laying out of large flags in the upper sections of the stand. If you can't sell the seats, fill em with school kids bussed in from miles around, or cover them over with flags.
Town lined up in the familiar 5-3-1-1 formation. In goal, Barnes. At the back were Atkinson, Benett and Fenton, with Hegggggggarty and Clarke in the left and right wing-back positions respectively. In midfield were Toner, Hunt and Boshell. Upfront was North with Till in his shadow. There was a Bolland on the pitch but it was Phil, lately of Chester. Our Paul was on the bench.
First half
Town kicked off towards the sparsely populated home kop, but the early exchanges took place in front of the away end, with Wrexham putting pressure on the Town goal. Barnes saved a shot from striker Drewe Broughton, on loan from the Bastard Franchise Scum, in the first couple of minutes. A little later Fenton blocked a shot from the same player resulting in a corner. This was taken by Danny Rambo' Sonner but was headed clear by Boshell.
The Wrexham pressure eased after about ten minutes and Town started to come forward more. Hunt was fouled wide on the right and Toner took the free kick, which came to nothing. Town were looking more threatening when attacking down the left, due to the liveliness of Hegarty but also because there was a little bit more grass than sand on that side of the pitch and we are a team that likes to play on grass. Young Nick got in a couple of crosses from the left, one that evaded everyone and went out for a goal kick and one that Till attempted an overhead kick from. Hegarty took a corner, the ball came back to him but his cross was too long and went out for a goal kick.
The pretending-to-be-warming-up Justin Whittle was sharing jokes with the Wrexham subs near the corner flag, whilst the wind was blowing all the litter in Wrexham slowly across Phil Barnes' goalmouth. In my I-Spy book of litter, I noted dozens of red balloons (popped and unpopped), a Happy Shopper carrier bag, three plain carrier bags, a black dustbin liner, six crisp packets, two ice pop packets (in February?), and a betting slip for the 3.20 at Haydock.
With ten minutes of the first half remaining, two boys carried a portable junior football to the back of Barnes' goal. What a brilliant idea to liven up the game!. Whilst the play is down the other end, swap the real ones (which you remember are portable too) for the junior ones. Sadly though it turned out that it was just part of the preparations for the half time entertainment. More of that later.
Fenton and Benett combined to thwart a home attack. Fenton made the first tackle but when the ball spilled into the box, there was Benett to make a superbly timed second tackle on another forward.
At the other end Toner ran forward and his shot was saved by Gavin Ward. Toner hurt himself in the process and although limped on to half time he would not reappear afterwards. Atkinson gave away a free kick on the edge of the box. Heggarty and Till formed the wall but when the ball came from Sonner, Clarke headed it away. Seconds later a Wrexham whipped cross from the right was cleared by the Town defence and immediately afterwards the referee blew for half time.
The half time activity consisted of hundreds of kids taking penalties against fat blokes in small junior goals. The kids have had to sit through a dire 45 minutes then get to take only one penalty each and find they have to beat a keeper who fills the width of the goal. Worse than that this all had to take place along the touchline presumably to protect the few blades of grass left on the Racecourse pitch. Come to Blundell Park kids, you'll be allowed on our grass.
Second half
Bolland replaced the limping Toner for the second half and it would turn out to be a better period for the visitors. An early Town attack found Hegarty down near the left corner flag surrounded by three red shirts. Boshell eventually went to help and between them they combined well to get the ball to Till on the edge of the box, but with his back to goal the man in the hole lost possession.
Town were getting the better of the game and a number of good passing moves (including a great back heel from North to Till) resulted in the Town players getting to the edge of the box or just in it, only to be broken down by the home defence. Hegarty got into the box but just couldn't get a shot in.
Wrexham replaced Jeff Whitley with Sam Aiston, the ex-Man City midfielder struggling for fitness in his first start of the season. Boshell was tripped by Evans and from the free kick, North's attempt to turn and shoot was blocked. A double substitution for Wrexham saw Duffy and Proctor coming on for Nicholson and Broughton and a couple of minutes later Buckley brought on Gary Jones for Peter Till to throw more weight up front.
Lump soon showed his adeptness at holding the ball up and one such move released Hegarty into the box but his shot hit the side netting.
With just over ten minutes remaining, Stuart Watkiss called Peter Bore away from Justin Whittle's social gathering of players pretending to be warming up or down by the corner flag, to tell him to get ready to come on. Buckley put his arm around the seriously straight youngster and pointed to various places over the pitch. Then Bore was told to sit down and Watkiss called over Whittle and Buckley had a word with him too pointing to the Town defence. A change of plan? Was Buckley tempted to defend the 0-0? Well if it was a change of plan it didn't last long as Peter Bore was told to get changed again and soon afterwards he replaced Danny North up front.
A ball was pumped high into the box by a Wrexham player and Barnes came out to punch it clear. Unfortunately he not only injured himself but took out Rob Atkinson in the process with the Wrexham fans getting angry that Atkinson wasn't asked to go off the pitch following a spongeing down from Dave Moore. The truth was, the referee had stopped the game for the Barnes injury and Atkinson's was secondary. Atkinson and Fenton were both booked by Mr Haines within minutes of each other, the former for a dissent, the latter for a foul.
As the game petered out, Town had a couple of good moves but couldn't penetrate the home defence. Bolland had a chance but on a difficult surface the ball seemed to bobble away when it just needed a shot. At the other end, Duffy headed to Michael Proctor and his shot just went over the top of Barnes' bar. Town should not have allowed the ball to get to him in the first place and then he should have been closed down more effectively.
The final action saw a long Hegarty throw on the Town left get to Bore but he couldn't do anything with it.
A poor game in difficult conditions with the wind, and more importantly the state of the pitch, conspiring against a good game. A little more incisiveness in the final third could have given Town all three points, particularly in the second half when the Mariners were the better of the two sides. Having put some early pressure on Town, Wrexham didn't threaten much for the rest of the game until Proctor's late shot whistled over the bar.
The copious amounts of sand on the pitch, which I understand surprised the home fans, will have had a tiring effect on the players' legs. This will not have helped the preparations for the Morecambe triple header. Let's hope those games bring some more excitement than this affair did.
The Town players were already starting to board the team coach in the car park before the hundreds of school kids got on theirs, still blowing their horns. At least they had a good time.