Salford 0-2 Grimsby: The Mariners Reel In Promotion Places
Credit: Clive Stapleton / shutterstock.com
Victory over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup and now a win away at Salford to leapfrog them in the League Two automatic promotion race. If there’s one thing that’s certain, Gary Neville hates fish.
There were ominous signs for Salford fans last week as they dominated the game away at Bristol Rovers but failed to come away with anything to show for it, meanwhile Grimsby stuck seven goals past strugglers Cheltenham to take themselves within a point of Salford and level as the league’s top scorers with Swindon.
The away side would go on to cement their places as the fourth tier’s premier goalscoring outfit by the end of the day, starting with the opener within the first minute of the game. Salford struggled to deal with a long throw from deep, the attempted clearance going only as far as Grimsby winger Charles Vernam on the edge of the Salford area. Some neat one-touch passing from the visitors culminated in midfielder Evan Khouri sliding home his fourth of the campaign and send the travelling fans wild behind the goal before their pies had even had chance to cool down.
The home side retaliated, some good build-up play from the right ended up with them working a decent goalscoring opportunity for Kallum Cesay. He managed to get a shot away but couldn’t direct the ball either side of Grimsby ‘keeper Christy Pym, who was equal to the effort and maintained his team’s early advantage.
Things went from bad to worse for Salford on the half-hour mark. Grimsby switched the play from right to left, dragging the Salford defence out of shape as they backpedaled from a counter-attack. Vernam was again found on the edge of the box, wiggling his way into some space just inside the area and firing a low shot beyond the keeper at the near post. Initially it looks like the goalie should do better, but the finish was really clever. Vernam let his shot off early and through a crowd of Salford bodies, wrong-footing the ‘keeper and leaving him rooted to the spot and unable to react in time to prevent the forward scoring his fourth of the season to add to his four assists. Lead doubled and the travelling faithful were ecstatic.
Just before the break, Salford forward Daniel Udoh profited from pressuring his centre-half into making an error and found himself one-on-one with just the ‘keeper to beat. His touch took him too wide, however, and Pym closed the gap well to make the save and keep the deficit at two goals as the half-time whistle blew.
The second half went exactly as Mariners gaffer David Artell would have wanted. His side sat in and coped excellently with the continued Salford pressure while still threatening with breakaways on the counter. Each side managed just one shot on target in the second period, neither effort testing the opposition goalkeeper particularly extensively. Karl Robinson rung the changes in his front-line to try and find a way through the steadfast Grimsby backline, but the visitors held strong and repelled any semblance of a Salford attack for the full forty-five. The final whistle rang out amidst the Greater Manchester grey and the away side travelled back to the blustering east coast with the spoils.
Grimsby ended the day inside the automatic promotion spaces and as the league’s leading goal-scorers, boasting the best goal difference to boot, an excellent end to the weekend for the Mariners. Their next big test is against fellow promotion-chasers Gillingham in two weeks time, a result in that game would bolster their credentials as a serious challenger for a space in League One next season. The result knocked Salford back a little, but they’re only two points behind their opponents and there’s plenty of football to be played. Robinson will no doubt be concerned that his side failed to break down the Grimsby defence in any meaningful way, if you’re going to get out of this league you need to show more than that in your home fixtures.
Neither side can afford to rest on their laurels. League Two offers a generous three automatic promotion spots alongside the play-offs, but that just means more teams are making a push for the top end of the table. The chasing pack are always circling like sharks waiting for you to make a mistake, and they tend to pounce as soon as they smell blood. Last time out, both Grimsby and Salford missed out due to dropping points on the final day, so nobody knows better than these two that every result matters.
It’s getting towards the busy winter period, as cup-runs and adverse weather causes games to be postponed and makes the fixtures stack up and the football comes thick and fast for everyone. There are at least sixteen teams in the division that will reasonably have their eyes on the promotion spots, a good run of results during this tricky period and a couple of shrewd January moves could catapult a team from the lower reaches of the table right into play-off contention. Salford and Grimsby will want to make sure they’re well clear of danger before the final day to avoid anymore heartbreak.
It’s horrible for the clubs that miss out, but it’s what makes the EFL as captivating as it is. Every game matters, no kick is wasted.
35 to go, will both these teams be celebrating come May?