[choirboy]

Lord D.......
I agree with most of your 'Player Scores' today with the exception of a 4 for Pearson! I thought that he did as well as the rest of the players and was about a 7 or 7.5.
I also thought that your observations about the referee are somewhat odd. It was the 87th minute I think before he brandished the only yellow card of the day, which was for a Grimsby player! Once again Billy Kee got no protection at all and there should have been one other definite yellow card for a totally 'Professional' Grimsby foul when one of our lads, McCarten I think, was bursting through the middle in the second half and was cynically brought down!
We missed the coolness and control of Captain Coneely today against a robust Grimsby outfit who were allowed to foul too frequently. We also struggled to maintain consistent periods of attack as our play broke down too frequently with the final pass too often going astray. Our defence played well apart form giving the Grimsby lad who scored too much space to step inside and shoot. I was behind the goal and I don't think that Chapman could be faulted as the shot was right in the bottom left corner! Chapman was under some pressure to perform today and I thought that he did well. He showed more confidence than earlier in the season in using his height to come out for crosses etc and also made a couple of excellent sharp saves.
Clarke was probably our best player today and he constantly caused problems for the Grimsby left side of defence. Had he tapped one in at the far post late in the game he would have been a clear MOM! Apart from the free kick goal that Shay so superbly scored, it was the next best chance that we had and was set up by Sean with a superb precise pass for 'The Don' to get into the box on the left and square a similarly super ball across the Grimsby goal four yards out from their goal line. Clarke was coming in at the far post for the tap in but checked his run, anticipating a touch from a Grimsby defender which didn't happen! The pass from Sean was inch perfect and carried the exact weight needed! His corners caused problems too.
Grimsby were a tough outfit to beat and having gone a goal behind I feel that a point retrieved was a point won, especially with our quietly influential Captain missing!
It keeps our unbeaten run going to 10 matches now and I hope that Coneely is fit to play on Tuesday against Cambridge in order to make it eleven unbeaten but this time with a WIN and THREE POINTS.
ON STANLEY ON