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The Pre-season in a nutshell!

If you have missed all news to do with Grimsby Town since my last preview in May, then you have a lot to catch up on.

Much has happened at Blundell Park in the last few months, and we start with Town’s first purchase of the new season - a new electronic scoreboard to replace the old and rather dodgy one that was bought in 1988 for a bargain sum of £30,000! As most fans will know, the old scoreboard, just like the Town defence last season, it seemed to lose it’s way somewhat and even gave up actually caring about the score. This, quite rightly, has lead to it’s demise, and a brand spanking new one has been installed. Which reminds me, as we are talking of old and dodgy things: fans may be saddened/glad (delete where appropriate) to know that the likes of Tony Gallimore and Steve Livingstone have been shown the Blundell Park exit door too during the summer. Also deemed surplus to requirements were Terry Cooke, Stevie Croudson, Chris Thompson, Jake Sagare and Steve Chettle. Georges Santos and Danny Coyne have also flown from the Blundell Park nest, which you may have thought leaves Town rather short of bodies. Not so. Paul Groves has been wheeling and dealing all summer, bringing back fans favourite Aidan Davison, along with midfielders Des Hamilton, Iain Anderson and Marcel Cas. In defence, re-enforcement’s have been made through Tony Crane, Mike Edwards and Jason Crowe.

In attack though, things have been rather hectic and frustrating. From day one, Grovesie has been searching for a decent partner for Michael Boulding. Firstly, we though we had Clive Platt (or "Pratt") signed up. But he decided to sign for a team with no money, in administration and no prospect of promotion. Fair enough. Then we had Dutchman Clive Wijnhard who was coming for a trial, then wasn't, then was again and then just didn't turn up. Groves is still searching for this elusive striker and may well have found it in Lauren Ten Heuvel, a Dutchman no longer wanted by Sheffield United. Ten Heuvel came through a recommendation from a Dutch associate of ours, Marcel Cas. Ten Heuvel may even have been signed quickly enough in time to play in Saturday’s opener. "But what about Phil Jevons?" I hear you call. Alas, the £250,000 "quality" "goalscorer" (as called by some fans) or "useless" "pile of rubbish" (as labelled by others) who played and scored three times in the third division last season for a mid table side, had a spat with our chairman Mr Furneaux over a pay cut. This basically means he can't play for us until he "gets real", as Mr Furneux says.

In the meantime, the Mariners have not lost a pre-season game all summer, which is obviously good news, but all Town fans know not to get too carried away because in the words of second in command, Graham Rodger "pre-season is just about fitness", and quite right he is too. The season starts on Saturday; what has gone before is irrelevant.