2023-24 Prediction League; Game 30 v Grimsby Town (home)

Div3North · 02-02-2024, 08:52

Accrington Stanley

v

Grimsby Town

2023/24 Prediction League Game 30 v The Marinaders (home)

If it’s goals you’re after, look no further than Grimsby ……… their last two games before last weekend’s 2-1 home loss to Tranmere witnessed 17 goals (1-6 at home to Walsall and 5-5 at home to Notts County) , and after us they play Stockport County and a slightly resurgent Colchester, then Donnie; they’ve won just 6 of their 28 games, drawing 10 and losing 12, and they’re currently 20th, ahead of Colchester and Donnie on GD (2 x six-pointers coming up) …… they’ve scored 41 and conceded 51; they did the double over SalfordMoneybags (2-0 at home and 3-0 away), and that apart their other four wins have all been at Blundell Park (Gills 2-0, Barrow 2-1, Morecambe 3-2 and Crewe 2-1), and quite bizarrely they haven’t won two back to back all season ……… they’ve played 3 games between wins, four games, five, two and three again; inconsistent? You’d say so ….

They changed managers before Christmas, firing Paul Hurst and appointing David Artell a month later, and in the just-ended Transfer Window they’ve been signing pretty much anyone who’s available and can walk - a rag-bag of talent that puts you in mind of the Pick & Mix counter at Woolworths (which, Praise Be, might be coming back to these shores soon!)

Starter for Ten time, then: last week Wigan hosted Wycombe in League One, beating them 1-0 with a goal from "England u21 star" Charlie Hughes …………. But what happened very, very late in the day to create a new EFL record, and what caused it?

Grimsby (or Great Grimsby, to distinguish it from a village called Little Grimsby about 14 miles away, near Louth) is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire; it adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is 45 miles north-east of Lincoln, 33 miles (via the Humber Bridge) south-south-east of Hull, 28 miles south-east of Scunthorpe, 50 miles east of Doncaster and 80 miles south-east of Leeds. In 2021 it had a population of 86,138. Grimsby is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having a population of around 200, a priest, a mill, and a ferry.

In 1857 there were 22 vessels in Grimsby; six years later there were 112. The first two legitimate steam trawlers built in Britain were based in Grimsby, and by 1900, a tenth of the fish consumed in the United Kingdom was landed there: the demand for fish in Grimsby meant that at its peak in the 1950s it claimed to be the largest fishing port in the world. The population grew from 75,000 in 1901 to 92,000 by 1931, but the Great Depression and restructured fishing caused a sharp decline in employment. After that the population was fairly stable for the rest of the 20th century.

Famous Grimsbians were discussed last time; sic transit gloria mundi ... former managers include Bill Shankley, Lawrie McMenemy and Alan Buckley (three times)

Second Starter for Ten, then …….. in 2010, Grimsby were relegated to the Bananarama, and became the sixth team to have played in all of the top five tiers of English football; but who were the other five?

The club was founded in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham, “Pelham” being the family name of the Earl of Yarborough; arguably - since the formation meeting took place in a pub called “The Wellington Arms” - they could have called it “Grimsby, Duke of Wellington” instead ……… and by the way, if the Duke of Wellington had invented sandwiches and the Earl of Sandwich had invented wellingtons we could all be wearing sandwiches and eating wellingtons ……. thought you might want to know that …………… and they first played in the Football League (Div 2) in 1892 (beating Northwich Victoria 2-1)

They finished last season in mid-table, 11th, off a record of P46 W16 D13 L17 and a GD of -7 …… I’ve already dealt with the personnel changes in the summer last time, but in the last couple of weeks they’ve ProperSigned CB Doug Tharme from Blackpool, LB Denver Hume from Pompey and CM Curtis Thompson from Cheltenham, and LoanSigned CMF Harry Wood from Hull and striker Justin Obikwu from Coventry ……

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 3rd February (soon be the end of the Tax Year!) ……… No doubt you’ve been following the transfer window - Mo Eisa to Exeter from MKD caught my eye, Charlie Wyke on loan to Rotherham, plus Christian Doidge going back to Vegan Greenpeace from Hibs …………. I also see that Robbie Williams is apparently planning to buy Portly Vale (he’s recently been made President, I think I saw) ….. as well as languishing in the nether regions of League Two, Grimsby are also out of the FA Cup in Round Two to Oxford United (after demolishing Slough Town, but only after a replay): they departed the EFL Cup in Round One (Mansfield) and finished last in their group in the Trophy with one point (gained from a “losing draw”, which is where you get stuffed on penalties)

And Wigan’s win over Wycombe last Wednesday (easy for you to say!) was pootling along in nondescript fashion about ten minutes into the second half when referee Adam Herczeg was “caught in a midfield sandwich” and injured ….. he wasn’t able to carry on, and there was a delay to the game while a substitute qualified 4th Official was found from the crowd, with one of the liners taking the whistle ………… when the board went up to show “time added on” at the end of the notional 90 mins it registered 19 minutes …. and Wigan scored after 90+20 minutes (the game actually played 90+23), making it the latest time that a goal has ever been scored in an EFL fixture ….. oddly, Ollie McBurnie of the Blades had set a new PrawnSandwichLeague record for the same thing only shortly before (90+12, as I recall) ……….

And Grimsby Town's relegation in 2010 (which made them the sixth club to compete in all top five divisions of English football) occurred following Wimbledon, Wigan Athletic, Carlisle United, Oxford United and Luton Town all having achieved the feat: after them, there have been three more clubs who’ve managed the (dubious?) honour, they being Leyton Orient, Notts County and Oldham Athletic….. and we’ve only got the Championnat and The Premier League to go before we join the list ………… COYR! Encore trois points!

Good luck to everyone! …… Keep the Peace! ….. And thanks for playing!