Salford 1 Grimsby 0
My wife doesn't watch much football these days. This wasn't always the case, when we were first courting she seemed to enjoy coming to watch Rovers with me. There was one problem though. She was a jinx. Incredibly it wasn't until her 17th attempt that she actually saw Rovers win! To be fair we weren't living in Bristol at the time so most of the games were away - but still.
I'm not quite at this level with Grimsby, but I'm certainly no lucky charm. Tonight was my 7th game watching the Mariners and I'm yet to see them win.
This is the third season in a row I've teamed up with Pete to go and watch his beloved Grimsby Town. Usually our mate Tom is in tow. But the pull of league two action and a midweek overnighter wasn't enough to tempt him on this occasion.
So it was just me and Pete who enjoyed a pleasant 3 hour train ride from Bristol Temple Meads to Manchester Piccadilly. Sipping on coffee and enjoying the sunshine on green and brown september fields out the window. I also spent a fair chunk of the journey trying to get my tickets in order. In the pursuit of thriftiness I'd booked my journey through a site that broke down the long journey in to lots of short ones to save money. This was all well and good but it left us with no room for anything else on our pull down tables.
On arriving in Manchester at lunchtime it was time for a beer. Our first stop - The Piccadilly Tap. This was a stones through from the station and came highly recommended from internationally renowned groundhopper - Matt Losboyos. What a lovely bar this was, Pete and me supped on an IPA and a pilsner respectively whilst taking in a bit of Manchester out the window. Fair play to the homeless bloke who spotted a couple had left two half finished pints on the outside table. In he swooped in the blink of an eye and downed them both.
I went vegan at the end of last season. So far I'm not regretting it. I even managed two weeks in France without wavering. Following a plant based diet isn't always that compatible with a day out at the football though. We'd arrived in Manchester at 1pm and the priority before kick off was site seeing and a drink or two. Faffing about looking for a vegan cafe wasn't on the agenda. Thus we were picking up what we could on the go. By the time we finished a bit of culture at The People's History Museum, I'd only managed to source two bags of crisps and a vegan sausage roll from Greggs.
There was much to mull over from our trip to the People's history museum as we walked north towards Salford. We'd seen an excellent exhibition on the 18th and 19th century events that led to the Peterloo massacre of 1819. This included a biography of feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft who we learned had a lover called Fanny Blood.
Fittingly we stopped for a rest at a lovely old pub called The Starr Inn which may well have been standing at the time of Peterloo. Ten years ago it was bought by it's locals and remains a community owned pub to this day. We arrived just after 4 to find the door locked and a few twitchy looking locals waiting outside. The sign said it should be open at 4pm. One bloke, who we would later find out was called Tommy, was absolutely livid. by ten past 4 he was pacing up and down coming out with some choice words about the work ethic of the yet to materialise barman. As ten past turned in to quarter past his rage was at fever pitch. Dropping C bombs left right and centre, he noticed Pete's Grimsby shirt and tried to enlist us in the injustice of it all: "These lads have come all the way from Grimsby and they still can't get a fucking pint!" A brave local encouraged him to "chill your boots". Thankfully at this point the barman arrived, clearly having come straight from a job on a building site and opened up.
 |
| Inside The Starr Inn |
So warm the welcome at the Starr that we could have happily hunkered down for the night but it was time to go to the game.
The meteoric rise of Salford City from the Northern Premier League Divison One North to the Football league in 5 years is well documented. This is thanks largely to the two part BBC documentary that aired a couple of years ago and the profile of the 'Class of 92' who took ownership of the club and have pumped in millions. This is their first season in the football league and unsurprisingly the ground, Moor lane, has undergone a complete transformation.
We were to be in the away end of what is now called the Penisnular Stadium. Over a thousand Grimsby fans had made the long trip across from North Lincolnshire and they were in fine voice from the off. Tommy had assured us we could "get a scoff" at the ground but my veganism tripped me up again. Whilst Pete enjoyed a pie I had another bag of ready salted crisps.
Moor lane is a neat modern stadium, it's near symmetrical with two equal size terraces behind the goals and two all seater stands along the sides. The flood lights are in the shape of the club new logo and there is what appears to be a permanent studio box in one of the corners of the pitch for pundits. Over the last few years Salford have been on the TV a lot and it looks like the Nevilles and Becks et al are expecting that to continue. The ground looks unrecognisable from the one that featured on the documentary and they are getting upwards of 2000 for every game, adult tickets of £10 must certainly help with this.
Grimsby were going in to this as the more in form team and there was lots of optimism behind the goal. One nice feature of the ground is that the stands are very close to the pitch. A fan in front of us was able to lean over the advertising hoardings and reach the poles holding up the back of the net to put a sticker on it. The atmosphere was good and Grimsby started well. They had the promising looking trio upfront of Moses Ogbu and veterans Matt Green and big man James Hanson. Green had a free header early on from a deep cross but could only find the centre of the goal and Salford keeper Lethren was able to tip it over.
Salford had a good outlet in their left back Touray, he was happy taking the ball down the wing at pace and looked a threat. The home team went 1-0 up with a free kick after twenty minutes. Long serving Grimsby keeper Mckeown either lost the flight of the ball in the wall or it took a slight deflection, as it flew past him as he was leaning the other way.
Shortly after the restart everyone thought Grimsby had equalised. They had a free kick infront of us just outside the area. Jordan Cook found the bottom corner with a beautiful curling effort. Cook celebrated with a knee slide right in front of us and the away end was a sea of limbs. The Salford players moped back in to position and as the Grimsby players got ready for the restart, the ref was just about to blow his whistle when the fourth official caught his attention. Apparently Matt Green had committed a foul by pushing part of the wall out of the way. The goal was disallowed much to our dismay.
Grimsby continued to dominate but the Salford centre backs were dealing pretty well with the high crosses in to the box. The disallowed goal seemed to deflate the away side a bit, but we still felt if they got an equaliser they'd go on and win it. They had plenty of corners and got themselves in to good positions but couldn't find the finish. Centre back Waterfall came closest right at the end, leaning backwards he managed to send a half volley towards the top corner but Letheren was there again to tip it over.
1-0 at the final whistle. We wondered off back to our hotel. In search of food we found a take away where I settled for a salty portion of chips. Coupled with my crisp eating I began to feel a bit shrivelled up. The next morning I bought a lettuce to much on to make amends.
Another enjoyable but winless trip to watch Grimsby. Hopefully they'll have me back again.
