Away Days - Blundell Park

Here are two facts you may not know about Grimsby Town's Blundell Park. Fact number one; the away stand is among the most irritating stands in the United Kingdom. No matter where you sit past the third row you will have some form of structural pillar obscuring part of the pitch and have to bob and weave to follow the action - this is especially annoying when you're wedged in between two people who have delved into a Big Mac at the McDonald's near the ground after having an appetiser of fish and chips beforehand. The second is that is used to be a PoW camp. Now, I can almost hear the disbelief so it's probably a good job I took a picture of the gun tower and the surrounding walls.





Now they have cleverly disguised these as a floodlight and a normal wall to fool the unsuspecting public, but Digga (no link to the 'Digger' at the Guardian) has found proof that Tommy Wright the 'Grimsby Marksman' is being trained as a special ops agent. His training included a stamp on Neil Bishop as he lay on the floor and a forearm smash across Mike Edwards' face before pleading his innocence - a well equipped agent. Merciless in the field.

How do Grimsby get away with all this you ask? The answer is the mascot. Standing at approximately 6ft and resembling a slightly perverted sailor, he runs around the pitch pole dancing and goading the fans and in all fairness is erection-inspiringly entertaining when compared to Mr & Mrs Magpie; the geriatric Notts mascots who have to get St.John's paramedics to carry them off just prior to kick-off just in case they snuff it.

The game was in all seriousness a battle. Neither team looked like they wanted to lose with the referee taking exception to the Notts players and brandishing yellow cards for running in an incorrect manner and leaving the SAS trainee Wright to storm around the pitch like the school bully who is playing on the losing team. Exceptional last-ditch tackles by Stephen Hunt and Neil Bishop in either half stopped the Mariners most threatening attacks whilst Lee Hughes was biding his time at the other end. The one clear cut chance that fell to Notts' leading scorer was gleefully snatched up as Hughes raced onto a Kasper Schmeichel kick and blasted in past Nick Colgan to give the Magpies their 8th win out of a possible 9.