Town in Festive Mood

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 21/12/2024

GRIMSBY's away run came to an end against former manager Ian Holloway's Swindon at the County Ground in a poor display. The Mariners were second best from start to end and only the woodwork and a missed penalty kept the score down to 1-3.

The match was preluded with a hostile reception to Ian Holloway from the 800+ away contingent, coincidentally his 1000th in charge as a manager. But the chest-thumping didn't inspire the away players, with Swindon making the most of the wind advantage to race into a 2-0 lead.

Grimsby's defence were in a festive mood giving the ball away on numerous occasions and Swindon's front two of Tshimanga and Smith made the most of the plunder on offer. The wind held up a Jordan Wright goal kick, but Town's defence had chances to clear it, but nobody took the initiative. Clarke raced into the melee and smashed the ball past Wright to give Swindon the lead. It should have been 2-0 minutes later when abysmal defending from Hume trying to play the ball out from defence and was robbed leading to a chance for Smith who hit the bar and then skied the rebound.

Swindon were wreaking havoc with their long throws in the swirling conditions which were causing Town a lot of problems, and Swindon hit the post again from an inswinging corner. The home side doubled their lead midway through the half when a free kick, initially defended was played back into the box and bounced to Tshimanga from close range for another slam-dunk.

There was hope that the wind would change things in the second half but Tshimanga hit the base of the post from distance early on to dispel that hope. Shortly after the ref gave a penalty when a shot was blasted straight into Luker and the ref deemed it handball, which looked harsh. Justice was done when Wright blasted high and wide. Holloway's men went 3-0 up through when the impressive Tshimanga found a yard in the box and was picked out by Clarke, with another unstoppable finish.

McEachran won a penalty for Town with a skipping run into the box saw him brought down and this time Rose found the back of the net from 12 yards.

Swindon cruised through the remaining minutes with their two-goal cushion never threatened.

Swindon looked like the side in the play-offs and Grimsby looked like relegation candidates on that display. In Tshimanga and Smith, the home side had two players that were far superior to Town's attack. Grimsby's defence made life far too easy for them and the scoreline could have easily been double what it was. Without Obikwu Grimsby looked toothless up front and Rose struggled to get into the game with Swindon's defence on top throughout, with and without the wind. In all other areas of the pitch, Swindon were better.

A few weeks ago Grimsby seemed to have a wealth of options with players returning from injury but now the squad seems short of creativity.

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