Mariners Way

Of course, our opponents today are nicknamed the Mariners. This track by Ocean Colour Scene was originally the B-side to their single “It’s A Beautiful Thing”, the fourth and final single release from their 1997 chart topping third album “Marchin’ Already”. The single reached number twelve in the singles chart. This track was later included on the 2003 “Anthology” album, and also on the extended 2014 re-release of “Marchin’ Already”.

Quiz Time Answer — Besides Newport County, and the other three Welsh sides currently in the League (Cardiff City, Swansea City, and Wrexham), how many other Welsh clubs have there been in the Football League and name them. Two — Aberdare Athletic and Merthyr Town.

It was a great win on Friday away against Newport County, a splendid way to start an Easter weekend. However away from the games the different fan groups caused it to be a more ‘interesting’ weekend than usual or perhaps necessary. It was fitting it was an Easter weekend, as it was like a scene out of ‘The Life Of Brian’, where the People’s Front of Judea, Judean People’s Front, The Judean People’s Popular Front, The Campaign for a Free Galilee, The Popular Front of Judea, and The People’s Liberation Front of Judea are vying for superiority. Only change the words Judea, People, Popular, and Front for Crawley, Supporters, Devil, and Town and you might get the idea.

I’ve known fan group splinters in the past and with any of them, the only real friction is between those at the very top. I was an admin and was on a podcast for a San Francisco 49ers UK supporters group for a couple of years. The half a dozen at the top had a falling out and there are now two groups, both doing their own pages and podcasts. The six of them are split between the two groups, but pretty much every one of the other few thousand members of the original group ended up being in both and listening to both podcasts. I took it as an excuse to withdraw from being an admin and being on the podcast as I hated making them, they were boring as hell, and I have the voice for mime. For me, the issue is (I know this will sound odd for someone who writes massively long content) is that most podcasts go on for too long, and on the whole most of those on video have people on them who, like me, have faces for radio and voices for mime.

I was going to take the opportunity over the Easter weekend to cram some more football in and had lined up going to Crawley Down Gatwick on Saturday afternoon and catching the 11am kick-off at Oakwood this morning. A great idea in theory, but I’m far from feeling a hundred percent so an afternoon out in the rain on Saturday wouldn’t have helped and feeling woozy when sitting up this morning suggested I need to chill and just come to this game.

Anyway, on to today’s game and our opponents — Grimsby Town, the team we started the season so spectacularly badly against back in August up in sunny Cleethorpes.

For overlap between the squads, we originally signed Danilo Orsi from Grimsby Town, and although he is our player it’s unlikely he’s going to be fit to play again this season. Meanwhile Grimsby have no former Crawley payers in their current ranks. But there have been plenty of others to have played for both including; Charles Ademeno, Kyle Bennett, Richard Brodie, Ronnie Bull, Billy Clarke, Josh Emmanuel, Owen Gallacher, Matt Harrold, Conor Henderson, Jake Hessenthaler, Gavan Holohan, Kevin James, Jordan Maguire-Drew, Filipe Morais, Scott Neilson, Ollie Palmer, Thomas Pinault, Jon-Paul Pittman, Isaiah Rankin, Mitch Rose, Wes Thomas, Tyrone Thompson, James Tilley, Ben Wright, and Adi Yussuf.

There are no Grimsby players on Topps cards (my favourite era), and for the away game I used some from the Proset era, but I’ve gone back and found their only one from the A&BC era, this one of Irish international Don Donovan is from 1960–61, at which point the question on the back of the card only had two correct answers, yet by the end of that season would have a third.

With Grimsby being in the Second Division through most of the eighties and early nineties there were plenty of appearances in Panini albums of the time.

Of course they were in the current EFL collection.

They appeared a couple of times in the beautiful badges book and how it changed over time.

And the answer to the question a few articles ago in regard to Fleetwood being the ‘Cod Army’ and which team had a lucky cod for the players to touch when the players came out was Grimsby, and this was the picture I had alluded to at the time.

We have played fifteen league games against Grimsby Town, all of which have been in League Two, we have won six, drawn four, and lost five including the poor 3–0 loss at Grimsby on the opening day of the season. At home it is a record of five wins, one draw, and one loss. We have also played them in Conference, with a draw away, and a loss at home. There are a couple of programmes in there from Grimsby Town games, one of which didn’t involve Crawley Town, but Leicester City, which I wrote about for the piece in the away game back in August.

Going into today’s game we sit ten places behind Grimsby, and twenty-five points behind them as they scramble for a play-off place. Elsewhere Barrow, Harrogate Town, and Tranmere Rovers have home games as well, against Chesterfield (who are in the last play-off spot), Bristol Rovers, and Colchester United, whilst Newport County are away at automatic promotion slot chasing Notts County.

There was a bit of programme selling pregame in the sun. Not quite a sell-out, but there was a queue at times.

And of course there was the programme to read.

There is only one change in the lineup with Max Anderson starting in place of Louie Copley who drops to the bench. We are in our home all red with white trim and Grimsby are in white shirts and socks and black shorts.

There is an early Grimsby attack down the left and into the box, they cut inside and curl a shot just wide of the right-hand post. We come out down the right and Taylor Richards lays it back to Ade Adeyemo, he cuts across the field to virtually the left before passing to Harry Forster, his cross into the box is just too deep to dig back and it goes for a goal kick.

Grimsby win a corner; we clear and win a free kick up the pitch. It is pumped long by Charlie Barker across field to Forster on the left wing, he plays it back to Lewis Richards who attempts an ambitious shot from forty yards which goes just wide. T Richards takes the ball into midfield and lays a ball down the right for Jay Williams; he gets into the box and puts a cross in which the keeper spills and it gets hacked off the line and away.

TAFKAL is back after a couple of games away and joins in with “Wakey Wakey Lino” as he gives a throw to Grimsby which blatantly came off their player. We attack down the left and lose it, and Grimsby break and get into the box and have a low shot which Jacob Chapman gets down well to save. He then gets up and saves the follow up, but the flag had already gone up for offside.

We attack down the left and Tobi Adeyemo beats a man and drives into the box and goes down on the goal line, the ref waves away the penalty claims and gives a goal kick. Grimsby have a free kick in our half, and it is swung into the box, and a header is just over the bar. The Grimsby fans are singing “Crawley’s a shithole, I wanna go home.” As if they’ve forgotten they come from Grimsby.

We have a bit of possession, passing it around on the right before playing it back across to the left-hand side where it is Scott Malone’s turn to have an ambitious attempt at goal from distance, this one goes well over. We give it away in midfield and Grimsby break at speed again down the left-hand side, and there is a shot from a tight angle which squeezes past the outstretched leg of Barker and arm of Chapman and goes in and we trail 0–1. The Grimsby players start to celebrate in front of the home terrace and are gesturing at the fans. The ref breaks it up and gives a couple of players a lecture, but there is no yellow card forthcoming.

Grimsby get another corner and it is put in under the bar, a Grimsby head is on the end of it, but Chapman manages to collect. And another Grimsby attack down the left, a cross comes in and we head it behind for a corner. That is swung in and Chapman punches clear. Another one of our attacks is broken up and there is another quick Grimsby break and a ball through to the striker in the middle on the edge of our area, he only has Chapman to beat and as he takes the shot the Grimsby fans are celebrating as if he’s scored, but he puts it a yard wide left. Thankfully.

A free kick for us on the left is pumped into the box and headed back out. We control and put it back into the box again, and it is headed out again, it falls to Williams and his shot from thirty yards out goes wide. A long clearance out from the back is taken down by T Richards, and he’s then taken down and we have a free kick about thirty-five yards out on the right. It is taken into the box, and no one gets a touch on it, and it goes out for a goal kick.

In a surprise to no one, Grimsby attack down the left and beat a man again and get a cross into the six yard box, an effort from close in is blocked out to the edge of the area on the right, and a shot is smashed back in, it takes a deflection and goes into the top corner and we trail 0–2.

Almost as if we are incapable of learning or doing anything about it, Grimsby come down the left again. A cross comes in and is put behind for a corner. That comes in and is headed behind for another. We clear toward Harry McKirdy on halfway and he is wrestled to the ground, but nothing is given and the Grimsby ball into the box gets controlled by a hand and we do get a free kick for that. We also make a substitution with T Richards being replaced by Louis Watson, not sure if that’s for an injury or tactical, hopefully the latter for help down the right with the constant left-wing threat.

There are plenty of others in the east marquee helping with the TAFKAL role this afternoon. Some of the officiating decisions are a bit bizarro to say the least, and there is already an egregious amount of time-wasting taking place. Someone said this ref used to be on the Premier League list. I’m assuming it was the Northern Premier League list. We come out down the left with a ball from Malone to Richards, and back, it is pumped into the box, and the defender misses his kick, McKirdy retrieves and tries a chipped cross back in, but it goes straight to the keeper.

And again a ball to McKirdy down the right, he plays it on to T Adeyemo and he fizzes a cross through the six-yard box, it takes a touch from a Grimsby player and goes out for a throw on the far side. It is taken short and a ball into the box does find a Crawley head, but it drifts out for a goal kick. There are two added minutes at the end of the half for nothing much to happen, and the half time whistle goes with us trailing 0–2.

Into the second half and there is an early free kick given away in the far corner. Williams, who committed the foul, then boots the ball against the player on the ground and is shown a straight red. Hardly the best action from the captain. There’s no excuse really, it may be the first proper rush of blood this season, but it’s likely to mean a three-game ban at the worst time with only four games left. It also means nearly an entire half to play as ten men against a side making it look easy against eleven. The free kick comes in, and we get a free kick for an infringement in the box.

Surprise, surprise, Chapman is down with a ‘tactical injury’ and everyone else traipses to the sidelines for new instructions. After which we have a bit of possession and a cross from the right goes deep, Forster retrieves and we work it back over to the right and A Adeyemo’s cross floats over the bar. It is his last action as he goes off and is replaced by Louie Copley, and Forster goes over to be right back for the rest of the game.

Straight away Grimsby are attacking down that side again, and a Barker back pass to Chapman sees them make a mess of it and a Grimsby player gets the ball but Chapman makes a save and clears it. They then go down the right and get the ball in, and we just about bundle it behind for a corner. It is taken very deep and goes out for a goal kick on the far side.

We attack down the eft and McKirdy plays it back to Watson and his cross finds the head of Adeyemo, but it goes straight up in the air and the keeper claims it. We make the last couple of subs with McKirdy and Richards making way for Dion Pereria and Jonny Russell.

The Grimsby number seven goes down as if with a severed leg after a challenge from Watson, only to bounce up seconds later with no ill effects, which leads to a great shout from behind me in the marquee of “Yesterday, you should have risen yesterday.” We have a free kick, and it goes into the box and is headed out, it comes to Forster but his attempt to put it back in comes off the back of another Crawley player and there is another lightning speed Grimsby break from which they win a corner.

Adeyemo is dragged down from behind when free down the left wing. We get a free kick, but once again there is the question of consistency as where’s the yellow for that? It is taken deep and headed back into the six-yard box, there is a bit of a scramble, and the ball is hacked off the line and away for a corner. It is taken to the near post and headed out, then put back in deep and Adeyemo rescues it, plays it back to Malone, the first cross is blocked back to him, and the second one is hacked off the line again for a corner. It is swung in a tipped out for a corner on the other side. It comes in a Adeyemo gets a head on it, but it goes over.

There are loud iconic cheers as a Grimsby player finally does get a yellow, it is for timewasting over a throw. We get a free kick about thirty yards out on the right side of the box, it is headed clear and we have another three attempts at recycling it back into the box, but it just keeps getting cleared. And nowhere near where the action was there is a Grimsby player down with a ‘tactical injury’.

We win a free kick in midfield and try to take it quickly. There is a blatant block of that attempt. We get to retake, but why the fuck is there no yellow card for that? I don’t think the Northern Premier League would want to claim this ref. We work the ball into the box and eventually there is a shot on the turn by Adeyemo, but it is blocked at source, the ball back in sees the offside flag up.

There are seven added minutes. Barker is pushed over from behind, and apparently that is perfectly allowable, Grimsby carry on and get into the box, and a shot comes back off the post and is cleared. We are attacking and for reasons no one, but the ref knows it is a free kick for Grimsby. The keeper takes forever over it and when it is pumped forward the Grimsby player on the left wing is ten yards offside, but there is no flag, they get a cross which hits Barker and flies over the KRL Logistics stand for the only ball loss of the day and a corner.

The full-time whistle goes and it is a 0–2 loss. It could have been a lot worse; there may have been a taking the foot off the gas by Grimsby after we went down to ten men. I don’t understand how this Grimsby team are only tenth in the league, they are easily the best side we have played (both home and away) all season.

The crowd was announced as a healthy 4,273 with 578 away fans, which I thought would have been more judging by how the away end looked and sounded.

It was a terrible day at the office, and I didn’t notice there being any post game huddle on the pitch today. But looking around elsewhere makes it seem better than it was. All four sides below us in the table lost as well, and so we stay in twentieth, still four points above the relegation places. It is still in our own hands, let’s draw a line under today and go and get some more wins in the remaining games.

Quiz time — Due to the demands of the fish trade, Grimsby Town were one of only two professional teams which had official permission to play league football on Christmas Day, which was the other?

We are back in action on Saturday with another trip via GWR or the M4 corridor, this time to play Bristol Rovers, with former esteemed Crawley boss Steve Evans in charge. There are two coachloads going for the FSS contrived early kick-off of 12:30. An overnight stop for me, possibly a few football grounds to look at.

Come on you reds.

Originally published on my own website at the link

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For other Crawley Town pieces from this season check out the list below.

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[embed]onetruekev I have two books published on Amazon. Where the lights shine brightest The man has recurring dreams of blinding lights…www.onetruekev.co.uk