It's a good thing this division is so poor.

By Nathan Jackson
December 30 2004

It's a good thing this division is so poor because the Imps are still only 3 points off a playoff place. A 0-0 home draw with Grimsby, which the away side dominated was the Imps 4th game without a win and the 3rd without a goal. The game also saw the return of the unpopular hit and hope tactic.

City had a mini injury crisis with GTF, McAuley and Gain all still out as well as numerous mebers of the squad being parcially injured in one way or another. City kicked off and immediatly started attacking the Grimsby goal. Bull fouled Yeo on the edge of the area. Sandwith sent in a free kick with, as par for the course these days, came to nothing but the ball found it's way to Richardson half way betwen the area and half way line. He shot but former Hartlepool keeper parried to safety. Within a minute, Marriott made a good save from Parkinson.

The game slowed down tremendously and the only other decent chance in the first 10 minutes was a Francis Green volley in the 10th minute which went just over the bar. Butcher had an effort go just wide on 15 minutes. Grimsby were no better, they couldn't muster a decent chance either.

The game once again calmed down and all the hype just made the game a big anti-climax and the half of half chances and wasted oppurtunities was rounded up in the 44th minute when Bull's free kick sailed over the bar. The majority of the crowd of 8,000 could more than likely think of something better to do with their evenings.

Sestanovich produced the first chance of the second half but he hit his shot well over the bar. Toner volleyed a shot wide just minutes later before set pieces and throw ins just seemed to comprise the whole game soon enough. Gritton then had a decent chance to give Grimsby the lead, his shot was excellently saved by Marriott. Grimsby started to control the game and were getting corners in quick succession and although none came to anything.

Sestanovich took a corner in the 72nd minute, Jason Crowe headed it and forced Marriott into an excellent save and out for another corner. However, this time it was easily cleared. Toner was replaced by Hanlon.

City then gained a corner and as usual, Sandwith hit it straight into the first defender and you couldn't see where a goal was going to come from for the Imps. Marriott was forced to make an excellent save just minutes later. The shot seemed destined to go in but Marriott stretched all the way and got his fingers to it to force another corner. This came to nothing.

Grimsby had two decent shouts for penalties minutes later, the first was when McCombe brought down Gritton in the area without winning the ball, this was rejected by the ref. The second was when Morgan was trying to control the ball and it clearly struck both of his hands, it was suprising that it wasn't a penalty as every fan saw it hit his hands, however, the ref didn't and neither did the linesman who was only 4 metres away from it.

Grimsby won a corner in the 3rd minute of injruy time and after a scamble, the ball was smashed home by Reddy but it was ruled out for handball in the build up even though the vast majority of fans couldn't see what was wrong with the goal.