Next Game - Grimsby Town (away)

Last updated : 12 April 2002 By Tony Scholes

Mick Boulding
On this occasion though it is also a vital game for our hosts Grimsby Town who are still in need of points to stay in the division although they are currently one place above the dreaded bottom three.

Grimsby are a club that have mixed it at the very top level but have also been down in the basement division, in fact we have played them in all four divisions although our last meeting in the old First Division was as far back as 1947/48 season. Grimsby were relegated at the end of that season and have never played in the top division since.

Over the past decade it is fair to say that they have been very successful given the size of the club and apart from one season they have all been spent in the First Division. They were relegated at the end of the 1996/97 season but a year later went back up via the play offs under manager Alan Buckley. Buckley was in charge for most of that period in two spells as manager the second of which ended at the beginning of last season.

Lennie Lawrence took over from Buckley in August 2000, the first managerial change of last season, and they ended last season in 18th place which was two places higher than the previous season. Their best season in this recent period was the 1992/93 season when they finished 9th although this was just one of three occasions they have finished in the top half.

They were everyone's favourites for the drop right from the off this season but on 1st September they found themselves top of the league with ten points from five games. They had played at least one game more than all but one side but it was still a start that surprised many. Their time at the top lasted just a day as the Clarets beat Bradford City the following day to replace them.

Andy Todd
From then it was just down for them and by the time they arrived at the Turf in November for a televised game they had plummeted to 21st place just a point above the drop zone with only two wins from fifteen games after that good start. We beat them 1-0 with an early goal from Gareth Taylor although they played quite well and Lawrence was already on borrowed time.

He was finally relieved of his duties on 28th December, a nice time to lose your job between Christmas and New Year and was replaced by player Paul Groves taking over as player manager. By this time they were in the bottom three although there were still some twenty games to go.

They never reached bottom place, an impossibility this season with Hell-Wood's Unprofessionals claiming it as their own, but they remained in the bottom three until the day Stockport were confirmed as relegated just four weeks ago. A week or so later they climbed as high as 19th, their highest placing for months.

As we play them this week they remain in exactly the same position they were in when we met in November and that is 21st although they have recently had a decent run and have lost only two of the last eleven games.

There have been six wins since and five of them have come in this recent run. They beat Portsmouth at home 3-1 just before the New Year and then had to wait until mid February for the next win with five coming in nine games, two of them with big scores. There were home wins against Sheffield United 1-0, Stockport 3-1, Crystal Palace 5-2 and Wimbledon 6-2 and a stunning 1-0 win at Wolves that seemed to wind up Kevin Muscat.

They haven't been beaten at home since Bradford City won 1-0 in early February although they have been beaten on seven occasions in total at Blundell Park in the league this season.

Check out Grimsby's league results this season

Terry Cooke
The FA Cup wasn't kind to them either and they went out at the first hurdle in the 3rd Round. After drawing 0-0 at home to York City they were beaten 1-0 in the replay at Bootham Crescent.

They have scored just 46 league goals this season and only Crewe and Stockport have scored less. Their leading scorer is Mick Boulding with nine goals. Behind that Phil Jevons has six and Alan Pouton five goals. Boulding and Pouton both scored hat-tricks recently in the 6-2 win against Wimbledon.

Grimsby's last game saw them do the Clarets a big favour by taking a point from Norwich with a late goal from Terry Cooke at Carrow Road. It was a game Norwich should have won and the vital Grimsby goal came out of the blue. The Grimsby team was: Danny Coyne, John McDermott (Simon Ford 46), Andy Todd, Paul Groves, Tony Gallimore, Danny Butterfield, Alan Pouton, Stacy Coldicott, Terry Cooke, Willie Falconer (Steve Livingstone 70), Paul Robinson (Phil Jevons 84). Subs not used: Steve Croudson, Wayne Burnett.

Since our last meeting they haven't been too busy in the transfer market although they have made full use of the loan market. Two players have though signed on free transfers and they are Chris Kiwomya from Aalborg and Willie Falconer from St. Johnstone.

They signed two players on loan in February from Charlton, Andy Todd and Martin Pringle. Todd is still with them but Pringle played just two games before breaking his leg in a dreadful challenge from Dave Challinor of Stockport. Two other players are now with them on loan and they are Terry Cooke from Manchester City who scored last week's winner and former Burnley loan player Paul Robinson from Wimbledon.

Robinson is one of a small number of players to have played for both clubs in recent times although for him both have been during loan spells.

Former goalkeeper Paul Crichton was a very popular goalkeeper with Grimsby and made more appearances for them than any other club. He moved on to West Brom with manager Buckley before joining the Clarets. That barm pot from Scunthorpe Brian Laws both played for and managed the Mariners in the mid nineties but his time there ended shortly after an incident with some chicken sandwiches.

Danny Butterfield
One other very much worth a mention is Doug Collins who signed for Burnley after an excellent performance for them against us in the League Cup. Doug had played just over 100 league games for Grimsby and went on to play just short of 200 for the Clarets and was in the side that had two great seasons in Division One in the mid seventies. Doug was a great passer of the ball and his goals were usually a delight, none more so than the chip at Elland Road in the 4-1 win of 1974.

Past matches are hardly anything to write home about and the last Burnley player to score a winning league goal there was Jack Billingham in November 1947. We won 2-1 and Billingham got both goals.

There was a good FA Cup win there in 1974. It was the 3rd round and a 2-0 win was the start of a run that saw us reach the semi-final. The goals in that third round win came from the youngest and the oldest players on the pitch, Ray Hankin and Keith Newton.

Since then amongst the defeats have been just two draws. One was the first leg of the Northern Final of the Auto Windscreens Trophy but we lost the second leg at home. Before that in 1994/95 season we picked up a point in a 2-2 draw. This was the last in a run of ten league games without defeat that came to an end with a 2-0 defeat at Stoke a fortnight later.

We were twice behind but equalised through Steve Davis and then in stoppage time from Gary Parkinson who beat Grimsby keeper Paul Crichton from distance with a screamer.

League results in the last 20 years

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1982/83

2

h

1-1

7,136

Donovan(pen)

a

2-3

5,448

Laws(pen) Moore(og)

1988/89

4

h

1-0

7,367

Oghani

a

0-1

4,856

1989/90

4

h

1-1

5,647

Jakub

a

2-4

5,973

Francis(2)

1994/95

1

h

0-2

10,511

a

2-2

7,084

Davis Parkinson

1997/98

2

h

2-1

8,256

Little Payton

a

1-4

4,829

Weller

2000/01

1

h

1-1

15,413

Cooke

a

0-1

6,044

2001/02

1

h

1-0

18,535

Taylor

Last Time in the League

Grimsby Town 1 (Enhua 55) Burnley 0 - Nationwide League Division 1, Saturday 17th February 2001

Wayne Burnett
Nothing is more certain than this week's visit to Grimsby cannot possibly be any worse than our last. Last season it was dire stuff against a Grimsby side who were as bad as anything we had played all season.

We were in a poor run of form but this was a totally unacceptable performance and one that was becoming an all too familiar sight. We were well and truly in a rut and the poor turn out of Burnley fans told its own story. Those that chose not to make the trip were the lucky ones.

Stan was no happier with the performance either and said after the game that we simply weren't good enough and described the Grimsby goal as a Towneley Holmes goal, this referring to the sort of venue where I played my football.

He accused the players of not coming from where he was coming from and then said we would be going back to playing boring old Stan's way. There were strong rumours that he resigned after this performance that had seen us pick up just four points out of thirty.

Tony Gallimore
To be honest it was easy to walk away from it, the performance really was that bad. Apart from one effort from Steve Davis, when he should have done better, we never threatened to score a goal and once Grimsby had gone in front from their Chinese defender you knew it was all over.

Somehow I cannot see how it can possibly be this bad again. PLEASE.

The teams were,

Grimsby Town: Danny Coyne, John McDermott, David Smith, Paul Groves, Zhang Enhua, Wayne Burnett (Stacy Coldicott 12), Menno Willems, Stuart Campbell (Danny Butterfield 78), Kevin Donovan, Steve Livingstone, Mike Jeffrey (Jonathan Rowan 90). Subs not used: Peter Handyside, Steve Croudson.

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Mitchell Thomas, Ian Cox (Andy Payton 63), Steve Davis, Graham Branch, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Gordon Armstrong, Lenny Johnrose (Paul Cook 58), John Mullin (Brad Maylett 69), Ian Moore. Subs not used: Paul Crichton, Micky Mellon.