Grimsby (Cod Army)

[MikeSB]

I've just booked my match ticket to make a special effort today as I lived in Grimsby for two years not that long ago and so its probably more special than normal. I need my strong glasses on and stuff to keep me warm but my match prediction of a loss of 3-0 still stands. Sadly that is as mamagers need to get far more strikers in the team nowadays.

[gazan]

Good to hear you'll be making an appearance at Gresty Road, MSB. Maybe this will pressage a surprise home performance!

[gazan]

I hope that Crewe fans will treat Artell with respect. He managed a brilliant team when we were promoted. He was a victim of post-Covid circumstances where our stars all left at once and then there were 2 very late 'retirements' that scuppered his plans. Okay, there were also personality issues as well but I think he does need recognition for his achievements. At least he has/had vision of what he wants. Is there a clear vision at the Alex currently??

[gazan]

Here's hoping a) we don't go one down as that seems to mean end of the game.
b) if we aren't doing well, that Bell is able to make coherent substitutions at a sufficiently early moment.

[Harlzed]

Connolly starting so I will move my 0-2 loss thoughts to a 0-3 loss. I hope I?m wrong.

[Harlzed]

I called that completely wrong but wasn?t wrong about the defensive frailties. Didn?t think we had it in us to out score two goals given away but we did. Tezgel showed his talent, now worried Stoke will recall in January like they did to Walsall last season. If he can put in a similar performance each week (not the same number of goals but the effort and talent) then we will cover March?s gap nicely. And March will have a job to get back in.

[gazan]

Yes, he showed he has an eye for goal. Let's hope he continues to receive the service he got today. Special mention to O'Reilly and Sanders.

[ShropshireAlex]

Yes O'Reilly 2 assists and Sanders 1, as well as Tezgel's hattrick. Stoke only recalled Lowe last year because they had a striker crisis in January, then couldn't let him out again when they wanted to, so unless that happens again I think at this stage of his career they'll want Tezgel to go on (I hope!) scoring at this level.

Both teams were frail defensively, but fortunately we were sharper in a game that could have gone either way - and on possession and number of shots on target we deserved the win I think, so that's 3 wins in the last 10 minutes in the last 5 games. Hope you enjoyed it Mike! Bring on Donny.

[MikeSB]

I did enjoy the game folks as its been a while since I have been to one and when they scored after about 6 mins, I thought they were going to slaughter us but I must admit, I was surprised how good we were when its been pretty negative reporting recently, even by me and I thought our players were excellent in how they responded. In fact I thought we were on top for loads of time in the game and we showed tenacity and passion in going after them. I was also surprised how good some of our football skills were by the forwards and midfield and the defence were pretty solid too. Just looking at the highlights, you can see how professional the goal scorer was as he knew exactly where to strike the ball and the third goal was sublime by the pass onto his head but he was as cool as a cucumber heading it into the goal.

I will also say seeing that performance live tells me that we have a pretty decent team and we need not be as negative as some of us has been. This win should inspire us to start winning games again and listening to Dave Artell after the geme, he said that his team did not perform very well. I have news for him as that was because we were better than his team full stop and he would not have expected to lose that game given the start they had. I would be a little concerned about the left sided full/back/midefield as two of their goals came in from that side. But we'll let that go with the geat win we had.

I met DA at HT to say hello but he said he was working and interesting to see that he and his coaches stayed behind on the bench for a few minutes at HT to examine in detail the reasons they let in two goals.

He must try and learn,sometimes its because of gritty determination to get back into the game and push on and that's what we did..

Well done team. It was very cold second half but I did enjoy the game and would like to go again even at my age ie 81 and my 70th year watching the Alex..

[MikeSB]

Good to hear you'll be making an appearance at Gresty Road, MSB. Maybe this will pressage a surprise home performance!

It seems like it did!