Stockport County 1 Grimsby Town 3 ( Football League 2) Saturday 15 October 2022

County`s performance was as dire as the weather today as they ineptly slumped to a thoroughly depressing 1-3 defeat against Grimsby Town at Edgeley Park.

Following our performance away at Bradford I was fairly chipper pre-match about County`s chances, but this confidence was quickly challenged when I noted that Callum MacDonald who had an excellent game at Valley Parade was benched- Hussey taking his place in the starting 11.

In the absence of a rational explanation, that made no sense at all and in no time it was apparent that we had swapped last Saturday`s defensive command for something way/way short of that, as the blues back line twice melted away in the face of some neat attacking play from Paul Hurst`s team, conceding two poor goals ( heard this before at all?).

County pulled one back through Madden but never really looked like reversing their fortunes today – their fate rather confirmed with 20 minutes left when Camps became the latest in blue to see a red card, and it looked well merited.

Sure, County worked hard to nick an equaliser after this, but it was perhaps inevitable with them having a go that they would leak another and so they did deep into added time to send a large away following home happy.

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Ready for the off.....( Andrew Machin )

Back at 3 o`clock being somewhat soaked, I was not overly pleased to note that Calum MacDonald was not starting- Hussey was on in his place. I found that totally inexplicable MacDonald having had a cracker at Bradford.

County looked to be struggling early on, a circumstance not helped by Mr Young whose refereeing decisions in the opening minutes were frankly baffling.

Town pushed on, their captain Luke Waterfall distressed to see his knock down from a Khan delivery come to nought 3 minutes in.

They fared no better a minute later- Efete`s good work going unrewarded when Kiernan`s foul got in the way of his team`s progress.

The pattern continued with Efete and Glennon putting Hussey and Collar under pressure.

County began to slowly reverse this pattern next but after a period of attacking the pressure eased on Grimsby when Sarcevic`s shot was routinely dealt with by Crocombe.

That was 12 minutes, another 60 seconds and Grimsby were at our necks and I was relieved to see Hussey just able to keep his hands off Kiernan as the forward sped into the box sending his shot wide.

This was alarming, County were coming under a fair bit of pressure from a set of Grimsby forwards who knew precisely what they were doing- Khan probed our right flank being blocked by Collar…….Glennon firing over the bar for Town with 15 minutes gone.

It did not help that we were conceding free kicks too, and we were soon defending another in a scoreable position when Holohan was fouled. The kick-centrally placed not far outside the box looked a dangerous moment for DC`s team , but the kick disappointed the away following going out off County`s wall.


1295 split twixt Raiway End & Pop Side .

The corner from Grimsby was not great and in a flash they looked to be in deep doo doo with Sarcevic played clear and one on one with the keeper. It was a real chance but not for long as Sarcevic`s shot was kept out by the diving Crocombe to keep it at 0-0.

We were beyond 20 minutes in now and by this time two things were becoming apparent. Firstly Paul Hurst`s side were partial to a lie down and secondly Mr Young, in common sadly with many of his EFL colleagues, is rather susceptible to a dive.

This was an irritant at this point, and I felt relieved again to see Kiernan`s shot carry the bar when he was well set.

It took barely a minute for my relief to turn to despair as County`s defence opened its doors obligingly to the advancing Town forward`s- Clifton latching onto a loose ball before quickly passing to the lively Khan to his left. Khan looked intent on doing County damage and Jaros could only get the lightest of touches to the cross/ shot when it came from Khan and this only served to send the ball on to where Clifton ended the move he had started by tapping in from no distance at all.

County were 0-1 down and very nearly 0-2 within 3 minutes as Khan again terrorised them with his close control and speed of pass which saw him turn the blues back line inside out down the left before firing a fizzing riprap of an effort goalward where Johnson tried but failed to control it. In an instant the ball ran on to Taylor a couple of feet away and facing goal but his reflex response failed to beat Jaros and somehow we had kept the deficit to just one goal.

Wootton had a shot around this time for County but it lacked any fizz or anything of note being blocked by Crocombe, and it was not long before things went from bad to worse for DC`s team.

We were just beyond the half hour mark when calamity came our way as Kiernan, enlivened by indifferent defending from County, surged clear sending Khan on another damaging sortie into home territory. Drifting left Khan sent another teaser into the box where Jaros could only push the ball out to where Holohan lurked and he made no mistake slotting the ball home from close in giving his team a 2-0 lead.

Dismay abounded in the lower tiers at this point and it was heartening to see one of County`s brighter lights …Hippolyte come to his team`s rescue with the visitors piling forward with a will.

Grimsby`s attacking play was far more incisive than that of County who clearly appeared to need an extra touch ….a further look around…etc.

Croasdale was Croasdale and won possession from nothing next sending Sarcevic in on goal. Again….a decent chance …but somehow he dragged his shot wide!

That was disappointing, but more followed and I was dismayed to see DC swap Crankshaw for Croasdale ! I did not see an injury, but perhaps I did miss one- in a way I hope I did!

Crankshaw opened brightly lifting a shot over the bar within a minute of coming on.

Mainly however it was Grimsby still doing the incisive stuff where it mattered -Kiernan in the van of this winning a corner with a leggy run to the by-line.

At this point Town started to over indulge with the timewasting, and Mr Young`s strategy seemed to be to take retribution via added minutes at the end of the half ( he gave 6 this time)rather than with cards. I could not see just how it was aiding Town to behave so as they were 2-0 up and County were by no means looking kings of all they surveyed. The upshot therefore was that inevitably the time wasting whilst annoying their opponents also served to blunt their own attacking initiatives and several minutes pressure on County left the score still 0-2.

And then it didn`t as County nicked one back- Wootton seeing his shot kept out before Madden did the biz with an unhurried finish in front of the big away following at the Railway End.

Six minutes added time came and went with no addition to the score, the teams going in at half time with Grimsby 2-1 up!

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The re-start saw County on the attack with Hippolyte to the fore, but Collar and others, despite trying hard, could not force the ball home.

The 48^th minute saw The Mariners respond via Andy Smith, but he was denied by a fine save from Jaros.

Play was swinging from end to end at this point with County immediately replying forcing Crocombe to act quickly to beat out a screamer from Hippolyte.

Then Madden joined forces with Crankshaw sending him through on goal with a nicely weighted ball. Notionally this was a chance but it was gone in the time it took Crocombe to leave his line and snatch the ball off Ollie`s toes!

That said I was beginning to get more hopeful and again it was Hippolyte feeding my naivety and being really unlucky from a tight angle on the end of Hussey`s diagonal ball, and Myles was there again just a minute later scaring Green into almost slicing the ball into his own net.

With Crankshaw lifting a shot over the bar next, we then saw DC bring MacDonald on for Hussey which I found welcome but 64 minutes too late.

MacDonald got forward quickly and County were still looking to get back in it. Grimsby somehow held out under pressure from Hippolyte and were relieved not long after to see Crankshaw shoot wide when well place to do better.

Crocombe did well to keep Hippolyte from Camps deep cross but less well as he unveiled his repertoire of time wasting classics, and again showed us that when he `played the game` he could actually do it well holding onto to a dipping drive by Sarcevic after the ball had sped to him from Hippolyte and Madden.

County really could not be faulted for effort, just the execution and Waterfall did the biz for the visitors with less than 20 minutes left by keeping Hippolyte from reaching a cross by Crankshaw.

Then it was all rather laid waste as Camps chose the next minute to launch himself into kamikaze mode dispatching someone in black /white shirt ( I did not see quite who) with an appalling tackle that got what it deserved namely a red card.

I have lost count of how many red cards this is that we have notched up but am quite frankly flabbergasted that we do not seem to have grasped this particular nettle before now and sorted our disciplinary record out!

Taylor almost added to County`s woes when the post red card hubbub had subsided being just unable to force Kiernan`s cross home from close in.

With the Mariners stepping up the time wasting revs noticeably, County kept trying to get back into the game , but after a series of raids and with Waterfall finding ever better and more ingenious ways of climbing all over Wootton without Mr Young getting miffed, the score still stayed 2-1 to Town with around 10 minutes of normal time left.

Grimsby did look to seal matters, but their attacking/ timewasting genes got rather scrambled along the way Smith being more intent on falling down than actually looking to see that his teams current move actually worked.

Then we had pantos galore at substitution time all serving to frustrate and interfere with any momentum County might be able to summon up, and they were trying….Sarcevic and Crankshaw winning a corner which MacDonald took and at which Crocombe flapped prodigiously.

The 87^th minute saw Horsfall go down in the box but I was not alone in seeing this as `a good try, but not a pen`.

CJ came on for Hippolyte on 88 minutes, which I thought was another disappointing move by DC. OK ,CJ just might nick one but Hippolyte had been our most dangerous player and boy did we need a goal!

Into added time we went with the time wasting going into overdrive via Glennon who was lucky to escape with just one card.

Pepple headed over for Town on 91 minutes and a run by the same forward ended with an offside flag from the liner on 92- Jaros just keeping Pepple from Taylor`s pass 2 minutes later.

County kept plugging away…..trying but with time running out the inevitable happened as with the blues piling forward Crankshaw was dispossessed by Glennon who sped up the park where Jaros was exposed royally by a clutch of advancing Grimsby forwards . The ball reached Hunt who gave the County keeper no chance at all with a finish that sent the sodden Railway End home happy.

Eventually the Referee blew for time and County had lost again.

There`s lots on DC`s plate for him to sort, and I have made my view reasonably clear, I think.

Just one thing though, Quigley scored again for Rochdale today, in view of the fact that we find goal scoring an issue, is it not reasonable to request that we recall the player?

Stockport County line up:-

Jaros, Collar, Horsfall, R Johnson, Hussey ( Mac Donald 64), Croasdale ( Crankshaw 36),Camps, Sarcevic, Hippolyte ( C Jennings 88), Madden, Wootton.

Subs not used: Hinchliffe, Wright, Palmer, Evans.

Grimsby Town line up:-

Crocombe, Efete, Glennon, Green, Waterfall, Holohan ( Hunt 46), Khan ( Pepple 82), Clifton, Smith, Kiernan ( Maher 82), Taylor.

Subs not used: Maguire-Drew, Richardson, Orsi, Khouri.

Attendance : 9464( 1295)

hedgegrower

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Some crowd shots firstly via hedgegrower`s phone:-