Well for who is classed as a manager with bags of experiance , you showed you left it back home..  I think you need to get your head out the clouds and your finger out your behind . You are at grimsby now  not lording it over prem players. Unless you can say that clifton and pollock where carrying knocks  there was no excuse to not start with them. You sent a young side out and could easy have been slaughtered and that stands at your feet  not the players. You cost us the game not the players , they did there best and was kernackered after 60 mins , Basically half a team of kids asked to play against mainly seasoned pro`s. So far i have seen nothing better than the last crop of managers even the fine words are there that i see through .. And where are all these big named experianced players that was wanting to come and play for you .. yer right  i smell something funny and steamy. Yu cocked up bringing players back too late ,, you cocked up not getting players in earlier . you cocked up penny pinching and losing players to other clubs,, and you cocked up with the team selection yesterday , we expect better from you if you are as good as you think you are .. and if you want to spout like you did before about if we dont like it we are not wanted . swollow this   i have been suporting my team for 60 yrs  and will prob be here for 20 after you have gone and been forgotton about ,, Dont like it  then sort your self out

Wow. Hope we don’t lose the second game too 🙄

He's having to chop and change an unfit squad (largely consisting of new players who haven't played professionally before) in unprecedented circumstances.

Relax

Yeah, right up there with the Braintree 5-0 and Hartlepool 8-1 defeats yesterday wasn't it.

FFS

Where are the experienced signings?

Do Scannell, Rose, Moshni and Williams not count?

What a plonker.......

Drama queen...oooooooh look at meeeeeeeeeeeee

U OK Hun?

Whilst I am fully behind IH and don’t agree with a number of Denni’s comments there is within his post some very interesting points which in truth have not been answered.

Why could we not get competitive friendly fixtures? Lincoln had 3 matches at least including Scunny and Oldham, surely local sides like Hull and Doncaster could have put together a decent eleven for a friendly?

Why were we late coming back, solely a financial decision?

If, as Ollie states, only the returning players were fully fit why are the likes of Clifton not playing whilst others get their fitness levels up?

I don’t want to dwell on Boyd as he’s 15 and surely reads the Fishy but bringing him on before Clifton seems a very odd decision.

Personally, given the press releases to date I always thought it would probably be November before we see the real quality of our squad but have financial decisions put us at a real disadvantage this season?

Finally I think we have quite a difficult start to our fixtures and still look to require a bit more quality and experience in the side and the sooner the better, but certainly it’s not a time for getting too uptight about performances and results as there are indications of the styOllie wishes to play which should be well worth watching.

Same here don't agree with the OP, but what are the facts around preseason did other teams play games or not. If they did then it is legitimate to ask why they did and we did not.

Quoted from denni266

Well for who is classed as a manager with bags of experiance , you showed you left it back home..  I think you need to get your head out the clouds and your finger out your behind . You are at grimsby now  not lording it over prem players. Unless you can say that clifton and pollock where carrying knocks  there was no excuse to not start with them. You sent a young side out and could easy have been slaughtered and that stands at your feet  not the players. You cost us the game not the players , they did there best and was kernackered after 60 mins , Basically half a team of kids asked to play against mainly seasoned pro`s. So far i have seen nothing better than the last crop of managers even the fine words are there that i see through .. And where are all these big named experianced players that was wanting to come and play for you .. yer right  i smell something funny and steamy. Yu cocked up bringing players back too late ,, you cocked up not getting players in earlier . you cocked up penny pinching and losing players to other clubs,, and you cocked up with the team selection yesterday , we expect better from you if you are as good as you think you are .. and if you want to spout like you did before about if we dont like it we are not wanted . swollow this   i have been suporting my team for 60 yrs  and will prob be here for 20 after you have gone and been forgotton about ,, Dont like it  then sort your self out

Not worthy of a reply but I do worry for you!

The post match interview allowed Ollie to vent his frustration at how he needs time to work with the squad and rail at the 'small margins ' which prevented his team getting a point. Most fans would accept his assessment but the underlying mystery for me is the selection of some players who are not even up to 60 minutes and benching the likes of Clifton and Pollock.
Many weeks ago, Max, Harry ,Mattie, Hewitt, were being praised for how they had stuck by Greg's programme in lockdown. Max was so ready he ran around too much and injured himself. Introducing so many new faces in the first league game was too big an ask. Walsall put out a team of seasoned pros who had finished last season well, returned early, and played Burton's first team in a friendly and Bristol Rovers in a cup game. They took Sheffield Wednesday to penalties too.
I didn't expect to beat such a settled and prepared side but I was puzzled why Pollock, Waterfall, Clifton, and Tilley didn't start with McKeown, Hewitt and Green. It's not as if Rose, Williams and Taylor, had been stellar in the cup games. Ludvig, Edwards and Preston certainly had.

Quoted from Croxton

The post match interview allowed Ollie to vent his frustration at how he needs time to work with the squad and rail at the 'small margins ' which prevented his team getting a point. Most fans would accept his assessment but the underlying mystery for me is the selection of some players who are not even up to 60 minutes and benching the likes of Clifton and Pollock.
Many weeks ago, Max, Harry ,Mattie, Hewitt, were being praised for how they had stuck by Greg's programme in lockdown. Max was so ready he ran around too much and injured himself. Introducing so many new faces in the first league game was too big an ask. Walsall put out a team of seasoned pros who had finished last season well, returned early, and played Burton's first team in a friendly and Bristol Rovers in a cup game. They took Sheffield Wednesday to penalties too.
I didn't expect to beat such a settled and prepared side but I was puzzled why Pollock, Waterfall, Clifton, and Tilley didn't start with McKeown, Hewitt and Green. It's not as if Rose, Williams and Taylor, had been stellar in the cup games. Ludvig, Edwards and Preston certainly had.

Maybe because Waterfall and Pollock got opened up a few times by Morecambe, with Waterfall messing up for the goal, but Ohman and Idehen were solid against Harrogate. Dropping players that play well doesn't really send out the right message to the squad

Like others, I agree our pre-season schedule was well below par, however I don’t understand people saying ‘Holloway has been found out’ ‘Holloway is a fraud’ etc.

We’re one game into a season in which we new would be a strange and unpredictable one. Yes we looked unfit, however we weren’t that much worse than them.

I know people are frustrated, but the fact is, a club like us doesn’t have that much money, so Ollie was probably just doing what he thought was for the best of the club, which is fair enough. Obviously we still left signing our players quite late, but a lot of teams started splashing the cash weeks before there was an announcement of the season starting.

A bit of a ramble, and yes I’m disappointed with yesterday’s result, however, I believe that in time we will have a great team with a lot of aspiring talent, that may not be this year, but I believe Ollie has built the foundations for a successful team.

Quoted from Croxton

The post match interview allowed Ollie to vent his frustration at how he needs time to work with the squad and rail at the 'small margins ' which prevented his team getting a point. Most fans would accept his assessment but the underlying mystery for me is the selection of some players who are not even up to 60 minutes and benching the likes of Clifton and Pollock.
Many weeks ago, Max, Harry ,Mattie, Hewitt, were being praised for how they had stuck by Greg's programme in lockdown. Max was so ready he ran around too much and injured himself. Introducing so many new faces in the first league game was too big an ask. Walsall put out a team of seasoned pros who had finished last season well, returned early, and played Burton's first team in a friendly and Bristol Rovers in a cup game. They took Sheffield Wednesday to penalties too.
I didn't expect to beat such a settled and prepared side but I was puzzled why Pollock, Waterfall, Clifton, and Tilley didn't start with McKeown, Hewitt and Green. It's not as if Rose, Williams and Taylor, had been stellar in the cup games. Ludvig, Edwards and Preston certainly had.

Yes pretty much agree with that. Much as it's great to see a 15 year old make his debut I thought yesterday was crying out for some of Cliftons energy. Idehen is a great prospect but I thought Pollocks defending and passing last week was worthy of a place yesterday.

I’m not too down at this point, but the “small margins” card works both ways, best we could have done with better finishing would’ve been a couple of goals, by the same token they could’ve had 5 or 6

Quoted from denni266

Well for who is classed as a manager with bags of experiance , you showed you left it back home..  I think you need to get your head out the clouds and your finger out your behind . You are at grimsby now  not lording it over prem players. Unless you can say that clifton and pollock where carrying knocks  there was no excuse to not start with them. You sent a young side out and could easy have been slaughtered and that stands at your feet  not the players. You cost us the game not the players , they did there best and was kernackered after 60 mins , Basically half a team of kids asked to play against mainly seasoned pro`s. So far i have seen nothing better than the last crop of managers even the fine words are there that i see through .. And where are all these big named experianced players that was wanting to come and play for you .. yer right  i smell something funny and steamy. Yu cocked up bringing players back too late ,, you cocked up not getting players in earlier . you cocked up penny pinching and losing players to other clubs,, and you cocked up with the team selection yesterday , we expect better from you if you are as .ve been suporting my team for 60 yrs  and will prob be here for 20 after you have gone and been forgotton about ,, Dont like it  then sort your self out

Exactly not hard to read the writing on the wall and others teams will be watching and identifying our weaknesses.

The key issue to me is central Midfield, as this is so critical to any team in protecting the defence and supporting the attack.
Whatever formation you play you need someone to break up play and another to get box to box and support the attack.
With a bit more fitness, cohesion, and experience it may be that we have the personnel now in the building with a combination of two from Rose, Williams, Taylor, Clifton or Spokes but we look a way off finding this yet

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Why were we late coming back, solely a financial decision?

I’d be interested to see how early/late our squad came back into work in relation to other League Two clubs. It did seem bizarre that we furloughed near enough everyone at the club too when it seemed certain there would be a restart at some point. Lost ground on others with signings, friendlies and fitness.

Ollie is no fool......he obviously has reasons for his selection yesterday which we may question as we don’t know all the reasons.......he cannot explain everything to supporters so we have to trust him.
If we got a 0-0 yesterday everybody would have thought it was a good steady start......we lose to a scrambled goal and we’re crap.....
This season may not even finish ........then we have a problem ...

There are two ways to look at this. Firstly, I thought Walsall were fairly comfortable winners in the end, but I'd attribute most of that due to fitness issues more than anything else. Last 20 minutes we weren't at the races and I felt their goal was a pretty soft one to concede. They had more chances than us, but not THAT many.

However, they finished last season as the form team in the division, made few changes in the close season and I was expecting a tough game yesterday. Honestly? They weren't that great. If that's what a top 6 team looks like, I don't think we're that far away from being more competitive. If we're still underperforming at the end of November, I'd be worried, but not after one game against a team everyone is expecting to do well this season, with a manager who has a bit of hoodoo on us generally.

Quoted from denni266

Well for who is classed as a manager with bags of experiance , you showed you left it back home..  I think you need to get your head out the clouds and your finger out your behind . You are at grimsby now  not lording it over prem players. Unless you can say that clifton and pollock where carrying knocks  there was no excuse to not start with them. You sent a young side out and could easy have been slaughtered and that stands at your feet  not the players. You cost us the game not the players , they did there best and was kernackered after 60 mins , Basically half a team of kids asked to play against mainly seasoned pro`s. So far i have seen nothing better than the last crop of managers even the fine words are there that i see through .. And where are all these big named experianced players that was wanting to come and play for you .. yer right  i smell something funny and steamy. Yu cocked up bringing players back too late ,, you cocked up not getting players in earlier . you cocked up penny pinching and losing players to other clubs,, and you cocked up with the team selection yesterday , we expect better from you if you are as good as you think you are .. and if you want to spout like you did before about if we dont like it we are not wanted . swollow this   i have been suporting my team for 60 yrs  and will prob be here for 20 after you have gone and been forgotton about ,, Dont like it  then sort your self out

What a complete loads of crap
What about Harrogate Tuesday?
One of the least experienced GTFC teams I can remember - didn't do too badly

1) Clifton and Pollock - your opinion, not a fact they'd have been better
2) Young team - see Harrogate point
3) Ohman and Idehen were great on Tuesday - he saw no reason to change it
4) Big names? When was that and who?
5) Cocked up? Why? Restrictions in place etc. Ollie was bound to try and get players in he wanted
6) Penny pinching - predictions are many clubs could be wiped out financially...so yeah, let's splash the cash...like Bury
7) Cocked up team selection - your opinion not a fact
8) Don't like it? Who says he doesn't

But who wants reasoned argument eh?

You are just posting opinions...they are not cast-iron facts
Big difference


This is object lesson in:
Wait for result
Form an argument around your prejudices
Post bollox
Retreat

If it's the same after 10-12 games then feel free to come back at me

But after one game?

First game and we lost away to one of the favourites. Lots of pluses. You don't get relegated from one game into  the season. I've got faith in Ollie. Armchair managers ha.

denni266;  don't sit on the fence.  Tell us what you really think eh?

Denni has a track record of posts such as this. He's entitled to his opinion of course, but his opinion is almost always negative, and usually voiced after a defeat.

Quoted from devs

If it's the same after 10-12 games then feel free to come back at me

If its the same after 10-12 games you'd better hope Holloway is a good Conference manager

I don’t know why you’re all debating the original inflammatory post which is clearly just an attempt to be as controversial as possible and get as many red crosses as possible. This has recently become a bit of a contest between certain well known posters and is a pathetic childish game which has no place in these troubled times when the club needs us the most. This is the time we should all be banding together and understanding the difficulties that have to be overcome this season, in order to move forward. The posters that spout this drivel do so for their own entertainment and should just be completely ignored. It’s not helping the situation at all and is detrimental to the success and future of the club we love, especially if the players and management ever visit this forum.

Quoted from Mariner56

I don’t know why you’re all debating the original inflammatory post which is clearly just an attempt to be as controversial as possible and get as many red crosses as possible. This has recently become a bit of a contest between certain well known posters and is a pathetic childish game which has no place in these troubled times when the club needs us the most. This is the time we should all be banding together and understanding the difficulties that have to be overcome this season, in order to move forward. The posters that spout this drivel do so for their own entertainment and should just be completely ignored. It’s not helping the situation at all and is detrimental to the success and future of the club we love, especially if the players and management ever visit this forum.

Maybe he doesn't love the club.  Maybe he's a Scunny fan who writes on here to try and wind us up.  Why start a thread of your own when you could put it in the Match Thread?  I wasn't happy with Town's performance- especially midfield - but I haven't written of the season or IH yet.; far from it. Big plus for me was Green. He frustrated the hell out of last season because i knew he was better than his performances suggested. UTM

Quoted from Mariner56

I don’t know why you’re all debating the original inflammatory post which is clearly just an attempt to be as controversial as possible and get as many red crosses as possible. This has recently become a bit of a contest between certain well known posters and is a pathetic childish game which has no place in these troubled times when the club needs us the most. This is the time we should all be banding together and understanding the difficulties that have to be overcome this season, in order to move forward. The posters that spout this drivel do so for their own entertainment and should just be completely ignored. It’s not helping the situation at all and is detrimental to the success and future of the club we love, especially if the players and management ever visit this forum.

Helgalian dialectic     :--    Thesis + Anthesesis = Synethis.

Quoted from Mayaman

Maybe he doesn't love the club.  Maybe he's a Scunny fan who writes on here to try and wind us up.  Why start a thread of your own when you could put it in the Match Thread?  I wasn't happy with Town's performance- especially midfield - but I haven't written of the season or IH yet.; far from it. Big plus for me was Green. He frustrated the hell out of last season because i knew he was better than his performances suggested. UTM

Maybe he has a different opinion to you isn't that what a discussion board is about?

Quoted from ginnywings

Denni has a track record of posts such as this. He's entitled to his opinion of course, but his opinion is almost always negative, and usually voiced after a defeat.

This.

Although he has crawled out from under his rock even earlier than normal this season.

Quoted from friskneymariner

Helgalian dialectic     :--    Thesis + Anthesesis = Synethis.

Was that the great man’s sister, Helga? 😉

He does post on here. As does Heisenberg. We’ve got some great thinkers on this board.

Quoted from pen penfras

Maybe because Waterfall and Pollock got opened up a few times by Morecambe, with Waterfall messing up for the goal, but Ohman and Idehen were solid against Harrogate. Dropping players that play well doesn't really send out the right message to the squad

Take your point re Waterfall to a degree and Ohman did put in a committed performance against Harrogate. Idehen also impressed but could not necessarily have expected to start ahead of Pollock after a full game on Tuesday. Ollie had said he was using the cup games as if they were pre season after all.
My main point was the selection as a whole. As Idehen and Ohman had already played last week then it was clear that they may tire or cramp up. Rose is not as mobile as Harry or Tilley. We lost the game because we ran out of energy and cohesion. Harry and Pollock could have been introduced earlier to shore things up when the game was stretched.
In a squad game with midweek matches it is usual to rotate players. I know Buckley said 'always pick your best players' but they tend to break too easily these days!

Ollie still has my full support but where are these fantastic signing/s for our level that he made out he could bring here.

I'm still waiting.

Quoted from Posh Harry

This.

Although he has crawled out from under his rock even earlier than normal this season.

And a very nice rock it is too. i like to pop out and admire it now and again

Quoted from denni266

And a very nice rock it is too. i like to pop out and admire it now and again

I'd rather you didn't!

Quoted from promotion plaice

Ollie still has my full support but where are these fantastic signing/s for our level that he made out he could bring here.

I'm still waiting.

Scannell is a cut above, I'd say Taylor and Edwards are too, keep Williams fit and he could prove to be an inspired signing, bring the youth players, a la Idehen, through and I'm in the camp of this season we'll see more loaning signings from a higher level rather than players signing on short/long term contracts to protect the finances of the club.

Quoted from promotion plaice

Ollie still has my full support but where are these fantastic signing/s for our level that he made out he could bring here.

I'm still waiting.

Extra security at Town ground holding gates shut against a mob of top class players desperate to to sign for Ollie lol

Quoted from denni266

Well for who is classed as a manager with bags of experiance , you showed you left it back home..  I think you need to get your head out the clouds and your finger out your behind . You are at grimsby now  not lording it over prem players. Unless you can say that clifton and pollock where carrying knocks  there was no excuse to not start with them. You sent a young side out and could easy have been slaughtered and that stands at your feet  not the players. You cost us the game not the players , they did there best and was kernackered after 60 mins , Basically half a team of kids asked to play against mainly seasoned pro`s. So far i have seen nothing better than the last crop of managers even the fine words are there that i see through .. And where are all these big named experianced players that was wanting to come and play for you .. yer right  i smell something funny and steamy. Yu cocked up bringing players back too late ,, you cocked up not getting players in earlier . you cocked up penny pinching and losing players to other clubs,, and you cocked up with the team selection yesterday , we expect better from you if you are as good as you think you are .. and if you want to spout like you did before about if we dont like it we are not wanted . swollow this   i have been suporting my team for 60 yrs  and will prob be here for 20 after you have gone and been forgotton about ,, Dont like it  then sort your self out

You make Steve Evans look like Jesus Christ

Quoted from AdamHaddock

He's having to chop and change an unfit squad (largely consisting of new players who haven't played professionally before) in unprecedented circumstances.

Relax

I agree with most of this but I do think he has tried to make a point to the EFL at our expense.

why are we unfit

Quoted from fishcake63

why are we unfit

Good question.

It seems we never really got to grips with the fact that the season was starting soon and the club as a whole couldn't shake off its covid lethargy.

Alarm bells started to ring when most clubs were signing players and to not arrange enough warm up matches was negligent.

Let's face it the club is badly run and has been for donkeys years and it might be that this is another example.

If Ollie didn't appreciate the size of the task he inherited he does now. I hope this makes him even more determined to succeed.

Don't professional footballers get themselves fit during the absence of league games?

Quoted from fishcake63

why are we unfit

Strange times, we could do with organising a friendly tomorrow to get the fitness levels up.

Quoted from fishcake63

why are we unfit

Season ended early, lack of any games for months as nobody could play them, pre season didn't really happen either and was all over the place. We signed lots of players who had not had a proper pre season either so fitness levels are not what they would normally be coming off a normal season and normal pre season. You can pick holes in why we didn't do this or that but the fact is that most if not all teams are struggling for fitness right now and it'll take a few weeks of games to really get back to normal. If you want to compare us to Walsall they don't have many new players at all and they all got as much pre season training in as possible while we had people in the game that didn't have that benefit.

Does anybody remember this headline in the GT?

"Grimsby Town's players hitting new levels of fitness"

I think we now realise that the 'new levels' mentioned were actually much worse than normal!!!

We looked all over the Park, forgive the pun, on Saturday but with 7 debutants starting, its hardly surprising that we didnt gel.

In any previous 'normal' season, the players have upto 6 weeks of preseason to get up to speed, so maybe we should be looking at that kind of timespan for everyone to be fighting fit and ready to take on the world.....well....League 2 anyway.

If thats the case then theoretically in a few more weeks we should be at full strength and fitness, as it has now been 5 weeks since the players returned to training, and 4 weeks since Mohsni, Jackson Jnr, Gibson, Sisay and Williams all signed on the dotted line.