The Fishy - Grimsby Town FC



League Two Table

  PGDPts
1Bromley29+2159
2Cambridge Utd28+1653
3Salford28+752

4MK Dons29+2551
5Notts County28+1451
6Swindon28+1249
7Walsall28+1149

8Chesterfield29+745
9Grimsby28+944
10Crewe29+843
11Colchester28+1042
12Barnet28+742
13Accrington Stanley28+440
14Gillingham27+438
15Fleetwood Town28037
16Oldham27+235
17Tranmere29-732
18Cheltenham28-2130
19Crawley Town29-1526
20Barrow27-1424
21Bristol Rovers28-2324
22Shrewsbury28-2423

23Newport County28-2520
24Harrogate Town29-2818

Full League Two Table
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SPL|SC|S1|S2

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Weighing the Odds!
Weighing the Odds!

The Loans Gamble

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 25/11/2006

IN the deadline day for signing loan players, Town manager Alan Buckley took it to the wire in searching for the right players to strengthen his squad and finally secured three players, two of which, were his earlier targets.

Anthony Pulis a midfielder from Stoke City, Martin Patterson a striker also from Stoke City and his third signing Peter Till a midfielder from Birmingham City who is no stranger to Town fans having played on loan for Scunthorpe.

Buckley has moved to strengthen the squad in the areas he feels he needs supporting, but in doing so, he has taken the gamble all managers take with loan players.

There is no point in bringing loan players in to add to the wages bill if they just sit on the bench. He has to play them.

But if they do not fit in or are no better than what he has already got, he has put his money on the wrong horse, so to speak.

But that is the price you pay in using loan players.

There is an upside however and that is that our regular players will need to improve their game if they want to be in the first team squad and competition for places is a great motivating factor.

But what is more interesting about using loan players is that it will give some indication of who Buckley thinks needs replacing.

In the strikers area, he does not have any choice with players off injured so we are not likely to gain any insight there.

But we may in the midfield and it is there that Buckley seems to have set his sights for improvement and it is there that we get a clue as to who he doesn't rate. Buckley keeps his views to himself but he cannot help throwing a few hints by his loan signings.

As these loans are all short term it seems that they have been brought in to assist us to get out of the relegation zone and allowing him some further time to develop the squad to get them to fit in with his style of play.

There is also the expectation with Buckley that if the loanees are players with the abilities he needs, he will move to keep them if he can.

The next few games are going to be very interesting.

Don't miss them!

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