Last game of August saw us lose 1-0 to Newport with Wes Thomas being sent off. We were currently 1-2-2 and off to a somewhat middling start with this loss coming after a win and 2 draws. No panicking as yet.

The end of September saw us losing 2-1 to Morcambe and also saw us slide into the relegation zone. This was the 6th league loss on the bounce and fans were starting to look very worried as we had plummeted in form and with no sign of real improvement a relegation battle looked on the cards.

October ended with a 2-0 defeat to Crewe which spoiled an otherwise remarkable month which saw Town end their horrid run and pick up 3 wins and a draw prior to that defeat. Now out the relegation zone and 5 points clear had Grimsby turned the corner?

November finished with Grimsby recording their biggest win in 2 years with a 5-2 drubbing of Tranmere which helped Grimsby keep some distance from the drop zone but only increased their buffer by 1 point to being 6 points clear.

December! Well the corner had most definitely been turned and Town were now sprinting down the street to catch up to the front runners. 4 wins and 1 loss see us now looking forward rather than behind. With us now a massive 14 points away from the drop zone and only 6 points away from a playoff spot dare we dream? We finish the year with the best form in the league with 5 wins out of 6.





Personally a solid mid/ upper mid table finish would see me happy and give us something to build on next season. Jolley has done a fine job of getting the best out of the squad he has and Towns very solid defence and ability to take the chances we do get is a far cry from the start of the season. UTM!

Get to 50 points as soon as possible and then look at where the play off positions are...this window could be our most pivotal in many a year...too many in could confuse things as the starting 11 has been relatively settled of late....but the injuries to Collins & Famewo need to be assessed quickly....given Famewo has been slightly prone to injury so far then a centre half is a must IMO.....the decision on Embleton and Vernam's diagnosis also needs to come quickly as those two have guile and pace that we dont have cover for.
Also could Whitehouse be due back anytime soon and effectively be a new signing.

Top half for my £150 or top 7 for another £255 will do 😃

Jolley surely has to be the manager of the month for December. He really does seem prone to losing streaks and winning streaks though - we saw both last season under him and the same this time around. A contender for League Two manager of 2018 though. The good thing about him is he sees what's wrong and adapts his plans rather than believing his plans are perfect and not being executed properly.

Quoted from moosey_club

Get to 50 points as soon as possible and then look at where the play off positions are...this window could be our most pivotal in many a year...too many in could confuse things as the starting 11 has been relatively settled of late....but the injuries to Collins & Famewo need to be assessed quickly....given Famewo has been slightly prone to injury so far then a centre half is a must IMO.....the decision on Embleton and Vernam's diagnosis also needs to come quickly as those two have guile and pace that we dont have cover for.
Also could Whitehouse be due back anytime soon and effectively be a new signing.

Agree with this.

The next few weeks will define where we finish in terms of who comes in, loanees that stay and how quickly the injured lads recover.

I’m not expecting to know anyone who might come in and doubt they’ll have been playing regularly so it might take time to settle.

Will things settle in time for a play off push? Not sure, but I know we won’t be flirting with relegation or stupidity in the last month or two of this season.

Quoted from GrimRob

Jolley surely has to be the manager of the month for December. He really does seem prone to losing streaks and winning streaks though - we saw both last season under him and the same this time around. A contender for League Two manager of 2018 though. The good thing about him is he sees what's wrong and adapts his plans rather than believing his plans are perfect and not being executed properly.

We saw both last season under him? No, we didn't.

Quoted from Paris Mariner

We saw both last season under him? No, we didn't.

It was quite a few games before he picked up his first win and then we couldn't stop winning.

Just read this by Matthew Benham and made me wonder whether we are reading too much into recent results and MJ's runs.


BEGINS

‘It’s a funny one. Fans, and the media, see something in everything, when it is actually randomness. For example, if a team goes on a lucky or unlucky run, there is nothing really more to say than they have been very lucky, or otherwise. People feel obliged to say the lucky team ground out a result. They embellish the story by saying they showed character and commitment. The old lines – “the sign of a good team is when you win when not playing well” – are trotted out. It is all balderdash. ‘Within every single move in football there are hundreds of small actions, little pieces of luck and skill, good and bad play. In professional gambling you try to strip out the element of luck. You are left with the signal after you have got rid of the noise. The more low scoring the sport, the more randomness there is. If the better team always won in sport then no one would watch it. There needs to be some element of randomness but not much. I’ll quite often watch NFL games when one team wins 35–0 and they are the inferior team. Maybe the other team had double the yardage, but couldn’t convert.’

ENDS

Quoted from Paris Mariner

We saw both last season under him? No, we didn't.

Well, it did take him six games to register a win, and then took 13 out of the remaining 15 points available, so that’s reasonably ‘streaky’ for me.

Let’s not forget that Jolley has relatively little experience to call upon and therefore it seems to take a little while to work out the right formula. The end product, once he gets there, is pretty decent and I’d back us to have more good runs than bad ones from here on in.

That said, January does look tricky on paper, something which needs to be taken into account if we do lose a few in the coming weeks.

I think laying the blame at his door when the run Slade started continued is harsh. He needed time to work a few things out - he hardly had a magic wand which turn a team which went without a win for 15 games or whatever it was at that point into a bunch of winners.

I think the best thing we have done is give hime time. But we still need to give him time - we are by no means the finished article.