Just back

Another poor performance over all (by both teams), especially the 1st half alot of hoof ball not much in the way of passing. 2nd half was better once Taylor came on and things really started to begin when Clufton came on we looked like we finaply had energy. Beautiful lob by Lloyd, keeper was rooted he had no chance. Ref had completely lost control by the end. Green MoM easy decision he's probably the onpy player who gave a full 90.

Difficult watch again ,masked by a moment of quality .Not much else to say really .

Poor watch and the fact we’ve had an evenly contested game at home against bottom of the league says it all. Lloyd & Green the only players who performed well over 90 mins.

That said, we’re safe and now can look forward to probably the biggest game in our history on Sunday. It’s not been a pretty season overall but you’d like to think we’re set up for a better shot at it next season. Some new and exciting signings alongside a much improved pitch would go a long way.

Boring again but for 1 moment of quality

They were okay, we’ve beaten them twice and i dont know how.

Taylor changed the game

Not often I can't get motivated to watch us but I only had 1 eye on the game. From what I saw Lloyd and Green were well above everyone else (Green tired towards the end). Taylor looked more like Taylor, clever free kicks won and put himself about.
Great to get the 3 points and we move on to the next.

Taylor and Clifton changed the game. Lloyd worked hard, deserved his goal, Khan and Green the best of the rest.
Not much else to say but same old shite home form.

I know I should be realistic in terms of how we came up and first season back in the league etc, etc. - but I am finding it increasingly difficult to raise the enthusiasm to watch Town (in the League obvs) at the moment. Today's game could be cut and paste with so many home games this season.  
There has been very little in the way of entertainment for a good while and today was no different.
However a win is a win. To be fair we were better second half and Taylor and Clifton changed the game. Green was my MOM and was pleased for Lloyd who took his chance well. They will be wondering how they lost that game and they weren't very good at all.

The 3 points outweighs the performance which was a very nervous one, we could have easily given away a penalty and thought Rochdale were the better team in the first half but the introduction of Taylor for the 2nd half changed the game for us with his clever ability to hold the ball up. Well taken goal by Lloyd and that gave us a bit of confidence and we saw the game out for the win. Sometimes it’s a game like today that gives the team a bit more confidence and I think the 3 points today will hopefully allow us to enjoy our football better.

As those above have said, not a glittering performance! Didn't thing Rochdale looked remotely like a side stranded at the foot of the table and we were lucky to get all square at half time.
Taylor made a difference and Harry added a bit of pace to the midfield when he came on. Have to say, their number 26, Mullarkey who PH tried to sign in January looks a very good player. Be worth going back for him if Rochdale do go down

Dull but achieved a quite important win which gives us the chance of resting some players on Tuesday. Pitch looks hard enough to run on let alone play footy on - a win next week would pay for a new one and a decent team to play on it!

Well done Town, deserved the win (just) you can see why Rochdale are bottom, Khan and Green my standouts, 3 points nearer to being safe.

Rochdale are flipping dreadful.

Was never gonna be pretty but always felt that once we went a goal up we’d be alright for three points.

Expect a raft of changes on Tuesday and todays win probably means Tuesdays result isn’t that important…

Not much to add other than I thought Rochdale were unlucky to leave with nothing, but their finishing, from better chances created than we managed, was pretty woeful, which probably explains why they are where they are. Maybe if Quigley had been on the end of them, it would be a different score line, but who knows?

To add to the other names mentioned, I thought Maher again looked quietly efficient and he seems to be a mainstay of the defence now.

Think that's our first league win for some time and the three points takes us finally into the 40's and further away from the bottom.

Not much different to Tuesday except we had decent period in the second half, and got the goal, which was very similar to the goal on Tuesday night.

Not much atmosphere in the ground, despite almost 6000 attendance, but there really isn't a lot to get excited about at BP this season.

Quoted from pontoonlew

That said, we’re safe and now can look forward to probably the biggest game in our history on Sunday..

You serious? Biggest game in our history?

Thought it was a very clever performance, didn’t give any  Brighton spies a clue as to how good we’ll be next Sunday.

Quoted from It Bites

You serious? Biggest game in our history?

Probably yeah, in terms of prestige and revenue.

Dreadful 1st half, better 2nd half, they were by far the better passing and running side and if they had a clinical forward line, we could have lost 3 - 1 easily.

Our dead ball free kick and corners delivery to their goalkeeper was brilliant today, hardly missed his hands all match.

Happy that Taylor and Clifton came on, Taylor made the ball stick, and Clifton ran everywhere.

Result was more important than the performance, but that was a hard watch !!

Quoted from It Bites

You serious? Biggest game in our history?

Absolutely. In terms of money and reward for winning (an FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley) there can be no bigger moment in our history?

Hard to argue or add much to the original post.
Cr@p game, must say though that the early (for Hurst) subs paid dividends, much better second half but still...our goal owed as much to poor defending and keeping as it did to a nice finish...outside of that one real lapse by "Dale" we hardly created anything again.

On the plus, 4 points this week likely to cement our status in League 2.
UTM

Quoted from pontoonlew

Absolutely. In terms of money and reward for winning (an FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley) there can be no bigger moment in our history?

You clearly never went to Welling away then pal!

I know recent performances have been lacklustre, but we've only lost 1 game in the last 7 and we're steadily carving out a mid table position for ourselves. While we still need to be better, I'm content with where we are.

I hope the pitch settles down soon as we head into spring as it's a real struggle to play on at the moment.

Green is exactly what we had been missing, awesome game for first one back after so long out.
Holohan was dire today and I would have liked hunt to maybe come on and spread the play around but clifton did well.

Quoted from monkeyboy

Green is exactly what we had been missing, awesome game for first one back after so long out.
Holohan was dire today and I would have liked hunt to maybe come on and spread the play around but clifton did well.

Yes, green was excellent. Despite the goals against Southampton, holohan will be lucky to start (which I think he will, but maybe shouldn’t…).

Another truly terrible first half, then another slightly improved, in patches, second half.  At this rate they'll need to halve the streaming fee to a fiver, and everyone tunes in for second half.
Weird, weird ref. How many talkings to did he give them (mainly Quigley) but gave us all those yellows?
Lloyd doesn't miss when through on goal. Green was great.

P1ss poor and clueless in the 1st half, 25 mins for the first shot and then the only other chance was a ballooned header.

The 2nd half was equally as frustrating as we got both full backs into the game and you could see what we was trying to do we just did it really badly, with zero composure in decent positions.

Only moment of quality was Clifton’s ball for a neat finish by Lloyd who I am beginning to like a lot. Also a mention needs to go to Greeny who I thought was excellent overall.

Lots of talk about the pitch this season and though it was playable the quality of the surface looks really poor, no excuse for the performance though.

But a win is a win I guess.

Thought Green was massively over rated in these descriptions - quite possibly shoukd have conceded a pen for his tackle in the box. Would not want hom anywhere near premiership opposition personally, although obtained he is useful for league 2 battles. Thought holohan had a decent game in terms of some of his passing.

Quoted from toontown

Thought Green was massively over rated in these descriptions - quite possibly shoukd have conceded a pen for his tackle in the box. Would not want hom anywhere near premiership opposition personally, although obtained he is useful for league 2 battles. Thought holohan had a decent game in terms of some of his passing.

All about opinions, but for me Green was way better than Holohan.

Quoted from ginnywings

All about opinions, but for me Green was way better than Holohan.

Holohan was not very good today, was he?

Strangely Struggle at BP this season?
But the v scrappy 3 points today “should” see us through now this season
But what about next?
Would prefer not to be scrambling around lower reaches of div 2 next season, we know that trap door is easily fallen through
Hope we do what we all know this team is capable of next Sunday
And put in an ace rememberable performance
Come on Town!!

Three issues arising from today I would have liked to have heard more about.
1 What is happening with Hunt was excellent against Leyton Orient and then isn’t even getting on as a sub today despite the need for his passing abiiity in games like the last two.
2 Mcatee taken off at half time. Didn’t see him sitting on the bench in the second half. Has Hirst lost it with him and why?
3 Green played to the end despite clearly being injured for last half hour and Kouri coming on for someone else . Seems an odd approach give how cautious we normally are in bringing back injured players.
With a rather important game a week away would be could to get any insight here.

Quoted from ginnywings

All about opinions, but for me Green was way better than Holohan.

Good to have Green back, someone talking and organising which has been missing.

Well, we’ve had a bit of a habit of making not very good teams look ok at home this season, and so it proved again. Still, I can’t help but feel results are more important than performances at this stage, and if there were any lingering doubts we might find ourselves in a relegation battle, we at least managed to put them to bed.

Almost equidistant now, in points terms, between the play-offs and the relegation places, it’s pretty clear which division we’re playing in next season which may at least make planning ahead a little easier than it was a year ago. And while the league season may seem like a dead rubber, with an FA Cup quarter final (at least) to our name, every position higher we can finish helps dispel the notion that we are a basket case club.

If Rochdale could finish though, today could have been different altogether. They had what looked to be 2 or 3 clear-cut chances before George Lloyd’s excellent finish for the winner.

I have a sneaking suspicion Hurst will try and sign Lloyd in the summer. He’s industrious, tidy and appears to be able to finish - 3 in 9 now and he has by far the best goals to minute ratio (229 minutes per goal scored) of anyone who has played a meaningful amount of games for us this season. He’s only just turned 23, too, so you’d hope there’s room for improvement in his game.

All-in-all, a fairly typical home performance, but for once with a less frustrating outcome. As others have said, it gives us the chance to rest players on Tuesday as we look ahead to what is, without doubt, the most potentially lucrative game in our history.

Agree about Lloyd, think he'd be up for it too given his post match interview.

The McAtee thing has gone under the radar, I don’t think he was bad enough to be hauled off, although the change of shape did improve us.

Quoted from pontoonlew

The McAtee thing has gone under the radar, I don’t think he was bad enough to be hauled off, although the change of shape did improve us.

Ben Davies’ explanation was that they needed to take off either Khan or McAtee to accommodate Taylor and they went for McAtee. Seems reasonable enough to me.

Quoted from HerveJosse

Three issues arising from today I would have liked to have heard more about.
1 What is happening with Hunt was excellent against Leyton Orient and then isn’t even getting on as a sub today despite the need for his passing abiiity in games like the last two.
2 Mcatee taken off at half time. Didn’t see him sitting on the bench in the second half. Has Hirst lost it with him and why?
3 Green played to the end despite clearly being injured for last half hour and Kouri coming on for someone else . Seems an odd approach give how cautious we normally are in bringing back injured players.
With a rather important game a week away would be could to get any insight here.

Think Hunt is a work in progress and will more likely prosper next season with better players around him and on a better playing surface. He's still relatively inexperienced and I think he will get a bit more game time toward the end of the season when the pitches are less heavy and we are not looking over our shoulder.

McAtee was not having much impact and they decided he needed to be the one sacrificed for the change of shape. Don't know if there is any more to it than that.

Green had cramp, but he's the type of player you have to drag from the pitch. Doubt they would have left him on if he was injured. He will probably be rested for Sutton, along with a few others.

Rochdale stank of relegation and were very similar to how they looked at Spotland in August - played some attractive stuff whilst looking completely toothless in front of goal and then giving away a soft goal.

Quoted from MarinerDevil

I know recent performances have been lacklustre, but we've only lost 1 game in the last 7 and we're steadily carving out a mid table position for ourselves. While we still need to be better, I'm content with where we are.

I hope the pitch settles down soon as we head into spring as it's a real struggle to play on at the moment.

I appreciate the pitch is like the tides just gone out, but it is dire for both teams.

Quoted from pontoonlew

The McAtee thing has gone under the radar, I don’t think he was bad enough to be hauled off, although the change of shape did improve us.

He does not get involved enough for me he is out of position and his role is not clear.Taylor was very good and i thought the fullbacks were poor. I would try Emmanuel at full back and give Effete a rest. Crocombe needs competition. Great result but i thought that we were a bit lucky.

Quoted from ginnywings

All about opinions, but for me Green was way better than Holohan.

I prefer Holohan to Green but yesterday Green was by far the better of the 2.

Emanuel was terrible at right back a few games ago

Hunt may feature a bit more with a fully fit Green to protect him and win the ball for him, hopefully!

How did that guy Mullarkey who turned us down in January play?

Re relegation...I wasn't at the game so watched results coming through on Sky.

When it came to going through the league tables Jeff Stelling suggested that the relegation battle in L2 was between the bottom 5.

I thought that was an interesting neutral view.

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Re relegation...I wasn't at the game so watched results coming through on Sky.

When it came to going through the league tables Jeff Stelling suggested that the relegation battle in L2 was between the bottom 5.

I thought that was an interesting neutral view.

I think that’s optimistic, on his part. Two from the current bottom three will go down, in my opinion.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/3W8wJ1j/D7-FE1804-3599-47-E2-ACB5-E12-C291-AA2-D6.jpg[/img]

Quoted from BobbyCummingsTackle

Re relegation...I wasn't at the game so watched results coming through on Sky.

When it came to going through the league tables Jeff Stelling suggested that the relegation battle in L2 was between the bottom 5.

I thought that was an interesting neutral view.

Hardly neutral, he's a Hartlepool fan

Quoted from coddy60

Hardly neutral, he's a Hartlepool fan

Neutral towards us. Nobody on here can have an objective perspective about our relegation or promotion because we`re all Town fans.

Quoted from Poojah

I think that’s optimistic, on his part. Two from the current bottom three will go down, in my opinion.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/3W8wJ1j/D7-FE1804-3599-47-E2-ACB5-E12-C291-AA2-D6.jpg[/img]

Yeah but games come thick and fast at the moment. I`d be a bit sweaty if we were only 5 points away from a relegation place. If things went very badly for you this week you could be in the relegation zone by next Saturday night.

Although in terms of goal difference they would have had to go very badly!

Definitely two of the bottom three IMO. Rochdale look doomed anyway but I think yesterday illustrated the point quite well.

As mid-table nothingness seems the likely outcome for the League this season, I'd really, really like to see us end up with a positive goal difference. When was the last time we ended up with one of those in the League? It's certainly been a while.

We're not in any relegation danger. With 13 games left we could well stay up even if we lost every single one of them and that's not going to happen. We've actually only lost one of our last 6 in the league despite it feeling like we're not playing particularly well.

Quoted from Poojah

Well, we’ve had a bit of a habit of making not very good teams look ok at home this season, and so it proved again. Still, I can’t help but feel results are more important than performances at this stage, and if there were any lingering doubts we might find ourselves in a relegation battle, we at least managed to put them to bed.

Almost equidistant now, in points terms, between the play-offs and the relegation places, it’s pretty clear which division we’re playing in next season which may at least make planning ahead a little easier than it was a year ago. And while the league season may seem like a dead rubber, with an FA Cup quarter final (at least) to our name, every position higher we can finish helps dispel the notion that we are a basket case club.

If Rochdale could finish though, today could have been different altogether. They had what looked to be 2 or 3 clear-cut chances before George Lloyd’s excellent finish for the winner.

I have a sneaking suspicion Hurst will try and sign Lloyd in the summer. He’s industrious, tidy and appears to be able to finish - 3 in 9 now and he has by far the best goals to minute ratio (229 minutes per goal scored) of anyone who has played a meaningful amount of games for us this season. He’s only just turned 23, too, so you’d hope there’s room for improvement in his game.

All-in-all, a fairly typical home performance, but for once with a less frustrating outcome. As others have said, it gives us the chance to rest players on Tuesday as we look ahead to what is, without doubt, the most potentially lucrative game in our history.

His post match interview (lloyd) was a come and get me in in my opinion, obviously he has to be diplomatic as he's a Cheltenham player still

Quoted from Maringer

As mid-table nothingness seems the likely outcome for the League this season, I'd really, really like to see us end up with a positive goal difference. When was the last time we ended up with one of those in the League? It's certainly been a while.

Only 17 years ago!

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

We're not in any relegation danger. With 13 games left we could well stay up even if we lost every single one of them and that's not going to happen. We've actually only lost one of our last 6 in the league despite it feeling like we're not playing particularly well.

Agreed.

We've taken 9 points from our last 6 games, which is an improvement on our season PPG average, and put us further away from the bottom than we were a few weeks back, so they are making no headway on us whatsoever. Our only deafeat from the last 7, including the cup, is with a much weakened side at the form team in the league.

Rochdale and Hartlepool are almost into single figures of remaining games now and time is running out for them. Every round of games that passes, decreases their chances of survival.

From the last 6 games, Rochdale and Hartlepool have taken 4 points each and Crawley 3. Crawley have 2 games in hand on the other 2 and could escape, so I reckon it's 2 from those 3 for sure. Harrogate have too much about them to be dragged in I think.

I was listening to Radio Humberside after the game yesterday and a caller from Simon phoned in and said he firmly believes we are in a relegation fight and he also said and I quote "Scunny had a really good transfer window"

Quoted from Davec

I was listening to Radio Humberside after the game yesterday and a caller from Simon phoned in and said he firmly believes we are in a relegation fight and he also said and I quote "Scunny had a really good transfer window"

Simon made me smile, I think he was quite special.

In the first half Crocombe’s distribution was the worst I have ever seen by a goalkeeper in all the time I have watched Grimsby Town. (32 years).
I am not sure what is going on because last season it was really good.
I saw six goal kicks go into the side stands.
One goal kick went six foot high and straight to their player (seems to happen most matches).
On another goal kick he fell over.
Many short passes putting defenders under pressure. (Happens too often)
Does he need some competition? He needs to buck up!

Quoted from easypeersy

In the first half Crocombe’s distribution was the worst I have ever seen by a goalkeeper in all the time I have watched Grimsby Town. (32 years).
I am not sure what is going on because last season it was really good.
I saw six goal kicks go into the side stands.
One goal kick went six foot high and straight to their player (seems to happen most matches).
On another goal kick he fell over.
Many short passes putting defenders under pressure. (Happens too often)
Does he need some competition? He needs to buck up!

He certainly needs to check his boots/studs.

He never seems comfortable with his footwork on a wet pitch.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

We're not in any relegation danger. With 13 games left we could well stay up even if we lost every single one of them and that's not going to happen. We've actually only lost one of our last 6 in the league despite it feeling like we're not playing particularly well.

We were never in relegation danger ,people over panicked because of recent times I think . However critical we are of the aesthetics at home ,Hurst always knows how to prepare a functional team that will get the required results -his biggest test now is building a squad for next season that will have significantly higher expectation on it to go up right through ; cant imagine anyone will be happy with anything but challenging for play offs or higher ,even our twin custodians .

Thought their no 11 Odah looked good yesterday,although he was not very tall seemed to beat Glennon a couple of times.

Quoted from friskneymariner

Thought their no 11 Odah looked good yesterday,although he was not very tall seemed to beat Glennon a couple of times.

He was basically Sousa though wasn't he? Looked really dangerous at Spotland back in August as well but very little actual end product.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

He was basically Sousa though wasn't he? Looked really dangerous at Spotland back in August as well but very little actual end product.

Spot on about the end product, he has played 79 games for Rochdale in all competitions and he has recorded just 3 goals and 3 assists!

This season he has played 41 games in all competitions scoring 0 goals!

Green was immense, Clifton changed the game when he came on, Maher gets better in defence, Lloyd's goal was just reward for his graft.

But that was bloody awful to watch.  The pitch isn't helping but it would be nice to be entertained at home games!

Quoted from Davec

Spot on about the end product, he has played 79 games for Rochdale in all competitions and he has recorded just 3 goals and 3 assists!

This season he has played 41 games in all competitions scoring 0 goals!

Interesting comparison to Sousa, as he took the eye on Saturday we thought he maybe on loan from a Lancs based  Prem or Championship club so was surprised to see he was in fact their player. He had great acceleration and quick feet...but looking at their overall recent records it could be he creates 4/5 chances a week which are just missed by their strikers so he gets no reflected glory.

Quoted from RonMariner

How did that guy Mullarkey who turned us down in January play?

I thought he was decent , looks like he would have been a good signing. Physical and difficult. Was hoping he would have been worse!