United 0 Grimsby Town 2
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Match Ball Sponsor: SCARLETT ENTERTAINMENTSOh dear! United went down to a fifth straight League 2 defeat at Plainmoor 2-0 against a Grimsby Town side that plainly weren't better organized or better individual players than the Gulls but still came out with a clean sheet and all three points.
Bucks made three changes to the side that had started the last match at Rochdale, two changes were tactical and one due to injury with Mark Ellis making a return to United action after his loan spell at Forest Green in place of the injured Lee Hodges and Chris Hargreaves and Marvin Williams coming off the bench with Tyrone Thompson and Wayne Carlisle dropping out.
It has been frustrating at times following the Gulls this season but there weren't many signs to deflate the faithful during the first half of this match. Grimsby were employing a 4-1-4-1 formation which left Mark Ellis to mark the lone Grimsby stiker - a role he fulfilled with ease during a man-of-the-match performance - and Chris Todd the spare man and it was the Gulls who were looking more productive in the early stages. A nice move in the fifth minute involving Kevin Nicholson, Nicky Wroe and Elliot Benyon finished with Benyon shooting on the turn from close range and Scott Rendell pouncing on the blocked effort before having his own attempt cleared for a corner. From the corner Mark Ellis beat his marker with a header from 12 yards but Lillis in the visitor's goal was always behind the ball and gathered comfortably.
The first danger for United came in the 12th minute when Sweeney struck a left foot shot from 22 yards that tested Michael Poke but the Gulls' 'keeper parried the ball to safety in his usual professional manner and the danger passed. Neither side was enjoying full dominance of the possession and shots from the edge of both penalty areas were the best that the two teams could muster as the game stuttered toward its second quarter. Marvin Williams looked to be just an inch too short when Chris Robertson swung in a superb right wing cross and United's new winger timed his run perfectly but couldn't get that all-important head to the ball and surely score.
As the first half ticked toward its conclusion United were building up a head of steam and it looked very much like Grimsby had come for, and would be happy to take, a 0-0 draw. Plenty of the ball and some nice passages of passing were proving not enough to break down a Grimsby side that seemed to be waiting to concede a goal. The one slightly off balance area of United's play was the fact that Williams was playing on the left of midfield and Danny Stevens on the right and neither player looked totally comfortable in that particular role but it was obviously a tactical instruction and the second half may well have seen it bear fruit.
Half-Time: United 0 Grimsby 0
United haven't had a great deal of luck so far this term, and although it shouldn't be relied on, a little slice of fortune wouldn't go amiss right now. Unfortunately, fate is a fickle mistress and in this match she decided that both Kevin Nicholson & Michael Poke were deserving of no luck whatsoever. Just before the harbinger of doom struck, United's best player on the day, Mark Ellis, headed a Nicholson free-kick just wide of the left hand post as it seemed that United were going to continue to turn the screw. Moment's later fate played her trump card when Nicholson made a perfectly good attempt to slide in and clear the ball ahead of the advancing Grimsby attacker from the right hand edge of the Gulls' penalty area but the ball came off the top of his boot and looped along the one and only trajectory that gave Michael Poke no chance of keeping the ball out of his goal. The look of disbelief on the Gulls' 'keeper's face would have been a picture had it not been so bad a situation.
United 0 Grimsby 1 (Nicholson o.g. 47)
Nicholson was substituted for Tyrone Thompson soon after the goal with what looked like a hamstring injury and at the same time Chris Todd made way for Wayne Carlisle in a tactical switch. Poke collected a yellow card just after the hour mark when he tripped Clarke outside the area but the referee showed some common sense and didn't reach for the red. United's final throw of the substitution dice came with 25 minutes remaining when Tim Sills replaced Scott Rendell in a straight swap up front and, as expected, United's header winning count increased immediately. Just as United were collecting themselves for a final push for an equalizer the coup de grace was administered by their surprised opponents who probably couldn't believe that they were winning after the first half. Mark Ellis conceded a free kick 25 yards out and Sweeney bent a well taken effort around the wall and inside Poke's right hand post. There was still over twenty minutes to go but you sensed the way this particular afternoon had gone most people in the ground new the game was up.
United 0 Grimsby 2 (Sweeney 65)
The final stages saw United play some of their better two touch football but, somewhat understandably, Grimsby were about as intent on throwing men forward and leaving the back four to their own devices as the defenders of the Alamo were to race out onto the Texan plains and take on the Mexican host when outnumbered 20 to 1. There is no dressing this up as anything other than a disappointment but there is time to take stock and make some slight alterations to a team that just seemed a little unbalanced today. Two out of the next three games are at home and it is at home that United need to be at their strongest.
United: Poke; Robertson, Todd (Carlisle), Ellis, Nicholson (Thompson), Williams, Wroe, Hargreaves, Stevens, Rendell (Sills), Benyon. Subs not used: Bevan, Brough, Adams, Mills.
Attendance: 2,575 (away 247)
In an 11.00am kick-off this morning United's youth team lost out 5-4 to Exeter City in the Alliance Cup. United were a goal up inside a minute and two up overall before finally succumbing to their more experienced opponents.
