| Going back a few weeks Chris Burns was quoted as saying that we would need five more wins to avoid relegation. We had the two in five days against Hednesford and Bath City and looking at the ever shortening list of games between then and April most fans would've underlined Grantham at home as another. Sadly it didn't turn out that way. |
| The Gingerbreads (could you ask for a gayer nickname?) had held ten man City to a draw back in Lincolnshire in October, no surprise there considering that today was our fifteenth but the game was more memorable for Burns' twenty-second red card. For the record today the gaffer spent two hundred and seventy times as long on the pitch as he did during the away game. |
| City had to reshuffle their pack again due to suspension, this time Neil Mustoe sat it out whilst Neil Griffiths returned from his ban away at Kings Lynn last week. Chris Thompson was given a rare game in midfield and it was a sight for sore eyes as far as the City fans were concerned. The rest of the side were made up with the same old faces but there were changes on the bench where Chris Addis came in for Keith Knight, who was nowhere to be seen. |
| For Grantham ex-Nottingham Forest striker Lee Glover is now firmly in charge having just taken over the managerial reigns when we visited earlier in the season. He has lifted the club from the lower reaches and into mid-table safety by bringing in a handful of players from his former club Corby Town and also calling on his ex-league contacts to sign the likes of former scummer "couldn't hit a horses ass with a banjo" striker Jason White. |
| Also among their numbers was the newly crowned Grantham Town appearance record holder Adrian Speed who having made his debut in 1990 has now amassed six hundred and twenty five games for the club. To put the feat into some kind of perspective, today saw Lee Smith play his two hundredth game for the Tigers, an achievement not to be ignored. |
Considering that the day started with glorious sunshine it was a real downer that the game opened in the gloomiest conditions possible. Little wonder that there was much huffing and puffing from both temas but a lack of real chances. It got so desperate that with more than ten minutes gone the closest we got to exersizing our vocal chords was a penalty appeal as Jimmy Cox was crudely bundled to the ground after turning a defender in the box.
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| The next attack involved Cox too but it was of Chris Burns' making. A wonderful spot and crossfield pass by the player boss set the City striker free and as the defence caught up the Tiger's number eight twisted and turned before firing in a shot which Grantham keeper Mario Ziccardi was equal to. |
| But a game that had offered precious little in terms of quality attacking play from either side surprised us all when the first goal arrived pretty much on the halfway point of the first period. Link up play on the right hand side of midfield between Lee Smith and Tom Webb saw the former run in, beat a defender and go down but as we were wondering whether it was a foul Daryl Addis seized the loose ball and shot hard and low into the corner from fifteen yards. Ziccardi got a hand to the ball but couldn't keep it out. |
| The first glimpse that we had of Grantham's threat came when a midfielder was allowed too much of an easy path towards goal but lost his footing as he got into the penalty area. His appeals didn't impress the referee. |
| As the rain started to come down the chances dried up again and the nearest we came to the Grantham goal being breached for a second time was a Smith shot that had the power killed by a deflection but still required a dive from the keeper to keep it from finding the same spot as Addis' earlier strike. |
| Jimmy Cox had been a threat without looking like scoring but with a few minutes of the half remained he became no threat at all when a clumsy tackle from behind by Steve Julian brought a premature end to his game. Adie Harris came off the bench and ended the half playing as a striker. |
| The last chance before the break fell to our guests as they picked up on a poor City throw and two passes turned defence into attack through striker Jason Turner but the former Stamford man couldn't beat Matt Bath as the City stopper pushed his shot wide for a corner. |
During the break Burnsy resisted the temptation to change things when he might've moved Lee Smith up front, Marvin Thompson to the right and Adie to the left. In the other camp Glover did alter things with Jason White coming on for Tim Wooding to give the Gingerbreads a three man attack.
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| It wasn't too long before the Lincolnshire side began to threaten and an attack that saw Lyndon Tompkins win a tackle but get manhandled off the ball was ended with a shot wide on the turn by Josh Quailey. Quite how it wasn't a foul on the City defender is beyond me and quite how I managed to use two successive words beginning with 'Q' is also quite impressive. Quality. |
| City were struggling to cope with the resurgent visitors and it didn't help that we were giving the ball away to them either. On one occasion a rick from Smith presented the ball to an opponent and the move ended up with Matt Bath parrying a shot from Turner before the ball was hacked to safety. |
| Thommo was showing us what it was like to have a skillful midfielder playing where he's supposed to be. In the first half he made several promising runs and actually shot from outside the box and on this occasion was unlucky when fed by Addis, his control and then shot was matched by Ziccardi. |
| The Grantham keeper had done well throughout the game but was lucky when he raced off of his line to try to beat Addis in the corner but the City striker got there first and saw his first cross padded down by Ziccardi and his second to the far post where his defence rescued him by nipping the ball away from Dave Wilkinson as he was about to shoot from Lee Smith's lay off. |
| The goalkeeper was in the news again when he got under a swirling right wing cross from Adie Harris and flapped the ball into his own net under pressure from Wilko, but the referee came to his aid by blowing for a foul against the City man. There was no foul and Grantham can feel lucky that the referee gave them the benefit of NO doubt. |
| But the man in black wasn't totally pro-Grantham as he showed a yellow card to Willis Francis for a late tackle on Thommo. The card came just after I'd said to a City fan that "this referee never books anyone!" |
City were still looking to get further ahead and Adie Harris began to show us what we'd been missing when he whizzed around the legs of Fabian Smith before driving in a low cross that beat everyone except City's Smith but our man couldn't deliver any power to the people as he drove his shot into the side netting. The funny thing is that I reckon you could go back in time by exactly one week to the minute and he missed with a carbon copy shot at Kings Lynn just like that.
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| Grantham's Smith became the second man in the book when his foul on Chris Thompson left the City man writhing on the ground. Quite what Thommo had done to receive such treatment is a mystery. Maybe he'll ask the gaffer to go back into the heart of the defence! |
| The Tigers should've wrapped up the game when a Daryl Addis cross into the middle was left by a defender and Wilko plundered in with a low drive from the penalty spot that brought the best out of the goalkeeper when it should've really hit the back of the net without involving the Italian sounding stopper. |
| More activity in the dugout saw the end of the game for young striker Quailey as he made way for Mike Sneddon, a new signing from Corby Town. |
| But as the clock was ticking down on what should've been three points for the Tigers Lee Glover went and spoiled it all by scoring. It wasn't without controversy though as Neil Griffiths, who was directly in between the ball and the goal was dragged out of the way by an opponent and the shot flew in. |
| City's heads dropped and with just a few minutes to play there seemed as though there would only be one winner. And it almost came too when a cross almost snuck in under Matt Bath's bar and I'm sure it would've had the Grantham striker though quickly enough and dragged the City keeper away from the ball. I'm sure the referee wouldn't have minded. |
| If anything made up for the disappointment of the late equaliser then it was the lack of any kind of threatening result by the teams below us. Banbury and Rugby both lost, whilst Stamford, Solihull and Team Bath all drew (the first two with each other) and the games involving Hemel Hempstead and Dunstable fell victim to the weather. |
| We still hold onto fifteenth place but with games against Chippenham, Histon and Halesowen coming into view damage limitation will be the name of the game whilst it will be all out war against Hitchin, Rugby and Banbury! |
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| Tiger Roar Man of the Match - Chris Thompson |
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Chris Thompson
Star Man |
Chris Thompson in midfield I hear you say? A breath of fresh air and he was easily the high point of a disappointing day. He was such a threat that he was the victim of nasty fouls in the second half that earned both of the offenders cautions. Keep him there please Burnsy!
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