Thursday 1 March 2018

Grimsby Town v Exeter City. Saturday 24th February 2018

Grimsby 0 Exeter 1
Featuring a classic old ground, fantastic hospitality, a terrible game of football, getting on the pitch and the fine folk of Cleethorpes.


The long and winding road to the 92 is indeed long and stuttering. Will I ever get there? As I approach halfway, the end seems as distant as ever. Since becoming a parent I've averaged 3 new league grounds a season. At this rate I'll reach completion in about 15 years time. I'm not complaining though. If I wasn't restricted in how far I can travel, I'd never have had so many thrills and spills on the West Country non league circuit. But this weekend, all the thrills and spills would be happening in Grimsby, or Cleethorpes to be exact. 

I'd been wanting to visit Grimsby's Blundell Park for some time. It's a historic ground and I've always heard good things from fellow travellers and have long admired pictures of the iconic looking Findus stand.

This trip had been long in the offing. Tom, Pete and myself had been looking for a venue for an annual weekend away. Naturally I was keen to tie it in with a new ground. Tom who last featured on these pages in Bideford agreed and Pete, originally from Grimsby, suggested Blundell Park: Deal done. Once the date was fixed - the planning began in earnest. Fortuitously Pete had a family friend with a couple of B&B's in Cleethorpes so the accommodation was sorted. 

Having picked up a shiny Astra from the good folk at Europcar, me and Pete motored up to London on Friday night to stay over at Tom's house. After a nice evening in the company of Tom's partner Kate, we were on the road again by 6.30 am. Dawn was soon breaking as we sped through the (still quite busy) Londond streets. It was a glorious cold sunny day and our spirits were high as we headed north. It turns out there's not much in the way of motorways in Lincolnshire. This gave us plenty of opportunity to admire the beautiful, albeit quite flat countryside that looked resplendent in the morning sunshine. Of course we stopped for a coffee (is a coffee ever more enjoyable than drunk on a saturday morning from a service or train station with the promise of the whole weekend stretching out before you?).

Morning Coffee

After picking up Pete's dad Tony near the Lincolnshire coast somewhere, we were back on the road with Tony pointing out local landmarks and telephone exchanges on the final leg of the journey. Our early start meant that we arrived in Cleethorpes before midday with plenty of time to enjoy our surroundings.

In good spirits as we finally arrive in Grimsby

First stop was The Osborn, our B&B for the night. Pete's family friend, Di was on hand to meet us. He'd said Di was going to look after us well and straight from the off she exceeded all expectations. A season ticket holder and also mum of comedian and Soccer AM presenter - Lloyd Griffith - I doubt there is much Di doesn't know about Grimsby Town FC that is worth knowing. Moments after arriving, she was on the phone to the club getting us good seats - she advised upper left in the Findus stand, saying it would give a good view of the football but also a great view of the ships sailing by on the Humber Estuary once we got bored of the game!

We look on in awe as Di pulls the strings and makes sure we get good seats.

Leaving Di to get ready, we went off in search of food. Famous for it's fish and chips, Pete and Tony took us to renowned purveyors of the local cuisine - Steels. This place oozed class from the moment we walked in. Shown to a table upstairs over looking the market place, our friendly waitress quickly bought us our first beer of the day, an offering from a local brewery - Axhomle Best Bitter. A lovely drop. The fish and chips were top drawer and all enjoyed in comfy surroundings with staff who seemed rightly proud of the plaice... 

Steels

Bellies full we moved on to the local spoons to meet Di and her mate Valma who'd come up from Mansfield for the game. This palatial pub, aptly named The Coliseum Picture Theatre was a nice venue to while away an hour or so before kick off surrounded by Town fans. We enjoyed a few ales as Tony regaled us with tales of his trade union days and Di pulled up Steels on it's decision to switch from ketchup bottles to sachets. 

Talk eventually turned to football, Grimsby fans were looking pretty worried. Having not won a game since early December it wasn't a surprise. Before kick off there was a 9 point buffer between them and the drop zone but with a lot of games left to play, results needed to start improving soon. Town's last manager, Russell Slade had inevitably been sacked a week ago after going 12 games without a win. This left the Mariners rudderless and ex Hull and Southend boss Phil Brown turned down the job a few days ago. Exeter were unlikely to be easy opponents, comfortably in the play off positions with games in hand, they were fresh from an injury time win away to Crewe in the week. 

That Exeter were todays opponents gives me the opportunity to tell my Paul Tisdale anecdote. It goes like this: He once smashed the windscreen of my car! Tisdale who has been manager of Exeter since 2006 is just waiting for Arsene Wenger to finally be wheeled away before he becomes the longest serving manager in English league football. It was back in the summer of 2001 that our paths crossed. He'd recently retired as a player and we played a few games of cricket together. He was a fine batsman and on the way to a century, he hit a six that bounced of my mum's ford Ka's windscreen that I'd driven to the game. He was a gent about at least and has gone on to b a fine manager and arguably one of the best dressed men in English football.


With 3 o'clock fast approaching we hot footed it to the ground. Arriving just before kick off we quickly took our seats high up in the Findus, now named the Youngs stand. The stand was built in the early 80's and was one of the first stands to be named after a sponsor - The frozen fish and crispy pancake firm - Findus. Before Di's intervention we'd been umming and ahhing about whether to sit here or in the Pontoon - the home end behind the goal. Arriving in our seats I was very happy with where we were. The Findus stand really is a thing of beauty. It stretches about two thirds of the length of the pitch and has a shallow lower tier of red seats with glass fronted hospitality at the back. Above this the large upper tier stretches high up above the rest of the stands and is covered with a slanted silver wind shielded roof. The result is something resembling a giant opened tin of tuna jutting out over the pitch.


Opposite is the main stand which is apparently the oldest remaining stand in the football league, dating back to 1901. At first glance it doesn't look that old as it is fitted with shiny red seats and has been re roofed a number of times since the start of twentieth century. It now shares a roof with the adjoining stand behind the goal. The remaining stand is the Pontoon - it's black and white seats contrasting with the red else where.

The main stand - the central part dates from 1901

Grimsby started the game quite brightly but I'm not going to pretend that this was a great game. It looked quite windy out there and both teams were struggling to get the ball down and do much with it. Understandably for a team that hadn't won for 13 games - the atmosphere in the ground wasn't electric. The first half progressed without much incident. Grimsby's right back, Zak Mills had a hell of a long throw on him but Exeter's back line dealt with most of what was hurled at them well.
A great view of the game and the ships in the Humber

The games two talking points came towards the end of the first half. First of all Exeter were awarded a penalty after Jake Taylor was recklessly chopped down in the box. Up stepped the Grecians top scorer Jayden Stockley, who made no mistake from the spot. 1-0 to the visitors.

Stockley gives Exeter the lead
Within a minute Grimsby had their own penalty. Straight from the restart they got in to the Exeter box and what looked a very soft decision went their way when Harry Cardwell was adjudged to have been fouled. Up stepped JJ Hooper who to the dismay of everyone apart from the 148 fans behind the goal who'd travelled up from Devon, couldn't find the target.

Hooper about to scuff his penalty wide
Half time came and much to our delight Di had a pint ready for us in the Trust bar. She also introduced us to club photographer Anne who not only took some group shots of us all, she then offered to get us on the pitch at full time! The good folk of Grimsby sure know how to make you feel welcome. The half time vibe seemed positive considering the score and recent results. Many seemed to appreciate the effort the home team were putting in and there was a fair bit of optimism that things could be turned around in the second half.


Ultimately that optimism proved ill founded on this occasion. Grimsby won a few corners and had a few long range shots that didn't trouble the keeper, but they couldn't find the equaliser. Exeter didn't look in much danger of adding to their lead. When they had Kane Wilson sent off for two bookings with ten minutes to go they were more than happy to hang on and a bit of time wasting saw them over the line. The BBC alleged that both sides had one shot on target in the whole game. On the evidence I saw this seemed generous and apart from Exeter's penalty I don't remember either keeper being troubled. 
1-0 at the final whistle and it was time to find Anne. She was as good as here word and before we knew it we were being waved over the advertising hoardings and on to the sacred green Blundell Park turf. 

'Curley' Pete saunters on to the pitch, cutting a dash in a hat Paul Tisdale would be proud of.

Anne seemed remarkably upbeat about her team much to her credit. Perhaps worryingly given that we felt we'd witnessed a generally turgid and discouraging affair. A lot of Grimsby fans we spoke to were of the opinion that today's performance was a significant improvement on recent games. I couldn't tell if this was because Grimsby really have been dire lately or if the Town fans we encountered were all resilient optimists. Either way lets hope they get back to winning ways soon. Other results went against them and suddenly the gap from the drop zone was down to 6 points with a lower team having a game in hand.

The lads with Anne




After saying goodbye to Anne, next stop was near by private club - The Constitutional where Di was on hand to sign us in as guests. The good times flowed as we met more friendly locals and Tom enjoyed the rugby on the big screen. I also got chatting to a nice Exeter fan who whilst appreciating the 'ugly win' doubted his team would be able to clinch promotion this season. We shall see. This supporter was a proud share holder in his club and it would be good to see a supporter owned club climbing the leagues.


We spent the rest of the evening exploring the Cleethorpes night life. First up was The Notts, a fine traditional pub that could have featured in a Patrick Hamilton novel. I don't know when it last had a refurb but long may it continue in it's current guise.

Eventually we ended up in an intriguing place called the Swashbuckle Tavern, or Swashy's. This was proper Saturday night territory and everyone seemed to be having a good time on the dance floor infront of the bar which is also a ship. I was pretty tired by this point and alarmed when Tony seemed to be finding a second wind, downing his drinks with abandon and trying to drag us on to the dance floor. Fortunately he was outnumbered and eventually he was in a taxi home. We had bite to eat in a still open Italian restaurant, marred only by a disturbing story about a kebab from Pete, before heading back to the comfort of The Osborn. 

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend and lets hope Grimsby rally and preserve their football league status.
An old timer in the corner of The Constitutional encapsulated the outlook and friendliness of the Town fans we met. As we left, he shouted "Keep the faith lads" with warmth and conviction. We'll do our best Sir. We'll do our best.

Saying goodbye to The Osborn





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