Lennie Gives His Verdict on The Fixture List

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 22/06/2001

GRIMSBY TOWN manager Lennie Lawrence believes the new fixture list gives the Mariners an excellent chance to make a good start to the season. With the first game at home to Crewe, then away to West Brom and home to Preston at Blundell Park.

"With nine points at stake it's far better to have two of the three at home. Clubs near the top early on tend to stay there awhile but clubs near the bottom find it difficult to move up," said Lennie to Geoff Ford, Sports editor at the Grimsby Telegraph.

"I wanted Manchester City at home in the first game to set the season going. But if we get three points out of Crewe it will still feel all right on the night of August 11. Crewe are Crewe. If you catch them on a good day they can give you trouble but otherwise they are beatable."

".…All in all, it's not a bad fixture list.…"

On the game against West Brom he said: "They had the top strike force in the league in Lee Hughes and Jason Roberts but in the two games we kept a clean sheet."

The Bank Holiday Monday trip to Portsmouth two days after the Preston game is a concern with Lennie saying "It will mean the players travelling while they are stiff and that is not desirable."

Lawrence also commented that the "crunch time" would be in October, with a six game sequence starting and finishing at home against Rotherham and Norwich. There are four very tough looking games against Sheffield United (a), Watford (h), Man City (a) and Birmingham (h).

"But all in all, it's not a bad fixture list." he said.

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