A Tale of Einstein & Chips By The Seaside.
Cleethorpes, another railway station where redundant buildings have been converted into an ale house with both the No1 & No2 bars on the platform buildings. A group of us met up in the No1 bar a fairly tasteful conversion of station offices serving something like six real ales of tap with two offerings from the fairly local Batemans brewery serving what I would call very traditional English style ales. Then an easy stroll to the ground armed with a generous bag of chips whilst buffeted by the bracing breeze; at least it was not desperately cold. In fact sticking with the chips, wherever possible I try to get some food, yes usually those healthy chips, before I get to a ground as the food within football grounds invariably comprises salty emulsified pig (called hotdogs), cartilage burgers and meatless meat pies. Surely it’s time football supporters rebelled against such culinary crap; bring back the Bedfordshire Clanger to the Kenny! The away terrace at the ground had a decent following, about 500 or so, supporting Luton yet probably one of our lightest away attendances of the season but Cleethorpes on a bracing January day and a relatively difficult journey hardly makes it an attractive day out. Our Nathan having the luxury of the returning from suspension Sheehan, made three changes to the starting line up with Rea moving up to holding midfield to accommodate Sheehan and at the same time placing reluctant tackler Olly on the bench, a good move as gifted as Olly is as a creator, he struggles with some of the uglier stuff in L2: also finding a seat on the bench was brother Elliot. The third player missing out was the injured Hylton with Cornick and the perennial “game changer” Cook making a rare start; our Nathan has such enduring faith in Cook and yet that wise man Albert Einstein said, “insanity is doing the same failing thing again and again and expecting a different result”. We started so much more brightly than we did at either Port Vale or Chesterfield with players actually getting stuck into tackles rather than simply letting the opposition have the freedom of picking up every second ball. Cornick down the right was looking dangerous whilst his accomplice on that right, Stacey, was looking downright shaky in that first twenty minutes. It was the dangerous Cornick who looked as if he may have shot us into the lead with a strong blast at goal but “Einsteins walking evidence” unfortunately got in the way of the shot and diverted it away for a goal kick with the confused referee initially pointing for a corner as the logical side of his brain found it difficult to reason that it was not a great defensive block. Grimsby then came racing back and with our defence possibly allowing too much free space, they struck the top of the crossbar with a good shot from range that bounced away for safety. Then giant lump Jamille Matt, a guy we seem to play against so frequently, sent a shot from range skidding wide of Stech’s post. After about half an hour, Nathan's faith in Cook was finally shot to pieces as he made another totally stupid high tackle/foul to earn his second yellow card of the afternoon and leave the field. To be honest, I felt Cook was very fortunate not to have been sent off at the time of his first yellow for a horrible tackle. Yet not to be outdone in the horrible tackle stakes, Grimsby’s right back Davis, was lucky to stay on the pitch and only collect one yellow following a series of crunching fouls. In fact the delusional Russel Slade, I don’t know what planet he comes from, in something like his 12th attempt at football failure (see yet another Einstein link), hooked Davis off at halftime to preserve the one-man advantage. Reaching halftime I would have so gladly settled for a point yet by jovial cyclist friend from London insisted that we would nick a goal and the points would be ours; it’s the salt in the air you know, plays havoc with ones reasoning! Yet hold on, we did nick a goal when a really superb dipping free kick by Berry was diverted onto the crossbar by former Luton trialist goalkeeper Killip only for the ball to be bundled over the line from a range of about 6 inches out by Collins and to be fair, if Collins had not finished the job, Potts was right next to him waiting to complete the task. How Collins celebrated that goal in front of the travelling Hatters fans; a moment for the 10 men to savour. In fact, during that early second half period, we could easily have had a second goal when the Grimsby defence who were finding Cornick too hot to handle, were pulled apart down the right by “our Arry” and his low cross slammed across the goal with the sliding Collins almost making the connection. As expected Grimsby really began to pile on the pressure and try to make that one man advantage count and although they were getting balls into the box, they were not really that effective and our solid defensive line in the main held with Stech comfortably picking us anything that breached the wall. Our defenders were playing really well with the centre-back pairing and Potts mopping up so much dangerous stuff in the area and as every, the fearless Sheehan throwing his body into everything to fairly block the ball. Nathan, who to his credit has been very clever in the use of substitutes this season, then brought on Lawson D’Ath to replace the tiring Shinnie; a good move as D’Ath will run and run and chase any space down. Then a second substitution was made with James Justin replacing Collins. Again to my mind Nathan doing the right thing is really trying to close down space and hold on to that slim lead. That left Cornick with his trickery and pace as the lone striker which at least kept our fishy friends stretched. Indeed it was the Hatters who came closest to grabbing another goal when Cornick chased down dithering goalkeeper Killip whose attempt to clear the ball hit “Arry” who was unlucky with the spin on the ball not being able to bring it fully under control, if he had, that would surely have been game over. Grimsby kept coming forward but were being held off well by our reshaped defence and slowly added time ebbed away and the referee blew the final whistle to deliver an incredibly important three points to league leaders. Overall Impression: A terrifically hard-fought away win against a rather poor Grimsby side that had a man advantage over the Hatters for two-thirds of the game thanks to some idiotic attempts at tackling by surely departing Cook. I should qualify that by saying that I don’t honestly feel that Cook is a poor footballer, yet as it sometimes happens, he has simply not settled at Luton and really carries too much baggage for any change to likely happen; time to call it a day on Cookie Mr Jones. Of the attack, we did create a few chances with two involving Cornick at the one that resulted in Collins goal and whilst Cornick was a constant threat, Collins did not really look totally convincing yet could not be faulted for his tremendous effort. Yet Collins has now really notched about 13 goals and may well hit 20 by the end of the season: whatever will happen if one day we start playing to his strengths? In midfield, we battled well but at times had to play a little deeper than we may have wanted due to being a man short. Yet in defence, we really battled so well with Sheehan, Mullins and Potts having really good games. In fact, Johnny Mullins despite some earlier reservations I had, has simply not let us down at all; well done Johnny. I have to say that overall we so dreadfully miss the injured Danny Hylton and that’s not just for his goals but for his overall play continually acting as an outlet to receive the ball, hold up play and bring others into the game; as the faithful sing “there is only one Danny Hylton” and we are nowhere near as effective without Danny in the side. So, there we are, truly battling backs to the wall away win with 10 men for an hour of the game; not spectacular sparkling stuff but surely the stamp of a promotion winning side. A few thoughts on individual performances: Stech: handled well and dealt with everything comfortable; fairly faultless on the day with even his kicking decent. Stacey: a rather dodgy first twenty minutes when he had his shoes on the wrong feet but improved after that spell. Thankfully the speedy Wilks who tore him apart at Accrington for pace did not start for Grimsby. Mullins: Johnny had a really decent game and probably did at least, as well as Cuthbert, would have done with the possible exception of in the air against the absolute giant Matt. Matt like Akinfenwa is a real challenge in the air for any L2 defender Sheehan: it was so good to have Sheehan back not only for his real bravery in the heart of defence but also for his coolness in clearing the ball with that cultured left peg. It was Sheehan who took a bit of a clobber from Matt in the second half but apart from awarding the foul, the referee chose to let that one go. Potts: solid and commanding the air; he looked back to his better form at Grimsby and that can only be good for the side. Rea: had a very decent game and despite being very busy, I can't really recall any bad passes so well done Glen. Berry: another player who at both Port Vale and Chesterfield failed to find his undoubted talent but at Grimsby, he turned in a real team effort and splendidly delivered that free kick leading to that Collins goal. Shinnie: after the dismissal of Cook, it turned into a real scrap and whilst it would most certainly have suited Olly, Shinnie has managed to graft that extra “competitive” skill to his L2 game. Not his ideal stage but he stuck at it. Cook: it’s just not worked out for Cook at Luton and his body language compounded with those two wreckless tackles tells it all. Nathan, time read the archive words of wisdom from Einstein; please read them again and again daily for the next month. Cornick: was a constant threat to Grimsby and far too classy for their defenders to cope with, He has pace, goes past players with his good close control and unlike others not to be mentioned, is unselfish. Collins: well you can't fault his battling but in our set up he is certainly not a Danny Hylton type and our team is more set up for Danny’s style of play as opposed to Collins old-fashioned centre-forward style of play. That’s not written as a criticism of Collins who runs his socks off for the team but more to the directed to the way our side is set out. Surely Collins is a type of player who thrives on good deliveries into the box and he certainly mopped up that one from Berry. The Subs: D’Ath: did exactly what it says on the tin when he came on with about 15 minutes to go and chased everything down as did JJ when he came on. Elliot Lee only had a couple of minutes on the field but again another battler.
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Hi there, welcome to my site where I chronicle various things about the Hatters, a team I have followed since the mid 60’sArchives
December 2017
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