Here’s a round-up of some of the latest news from our league.
- Grimsby keeper James McKeown has been talking to local press, and he feels there’s nothing to fear from our game this weekend. Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph, he said: “Every game is massive, but let’s be right it’s a derby and we are going to take a big following. We matched Lincoln in the home game that we had here. Nothing much happened in the game and it stayed 0-0. There is no reason to go there and fear them. We had a decent result on Saturday and we are all looking forward to it. It’s massive that we have taken something into it. For us to have lost on Saturday and then gone to Sincil Bank would have been tough.”
- Exeter dropped vital points against Yeovil last night, with the Grecians looking decidedly inconsistent as they try to keep City out of the top seven. Sadly, a section of their support cheered when midfielder Ryan Hartley was taken off. The midfielder has split opinion fat St James Park for some time now, but to cheer one of your own going off can’t be good for morale. Devon Live reporter David Bryom wasn’t impressed, asserting that ‘cheering a player off the pitch will do nothing to help the Grecians towards their goal of automatic promotion’. Personally, I was surprised they have automatic promotion as their aim.
- Still on players being singled out for criticism, we move to Luton Town. They weren’t able to do us a favour by beating Coventry last night, but they did at least take a point when they seemed to be heading for defeat. Manager Nathan Jones wasn’t impressed with giant keeper Marek Stech who he felt could have done better with the goals. “We started badly, which kind of shook us,” he told Dunstable Today. “We didn’t defend well in the wide areas, then we didn’t get close enough on the edge of the box, then Marek’s parried it straight to Vincenti, who’s had a tap in. Then it’s a massive goalkeeping error for the second goal. That’s for me the big disappointment from Marek and he knows it, but then he responded with two wonderful saves second half which were more like Marek Stech.”
- Hapless Port Vale fans have seen two draws against teams battling against relegation and to top it all off, their supporters coach broke down on the way home. They drew 1-1 with bottom side Barnet, allowing the Bees to climb off the bottom of the table, with a creditable 193 Vale fans making the trip to London. A broken-down coach meant some fans didn’t depart the stadium till after 1am, which given the traffic problems at Barnet would have been about the time the car park cleared anyway. The incident comes just three days after Vale’s travelling fans travelled to Grimsby making it a 500 mile round-trip for many fans.
- Mark Robins has been forced to defend winger Peter Vincenti after fans voiced their concern at the unorthodox player’s recent form. He was dropped completely at the weekend, but returned to the squad last night against Luton, scoring after just three minutes. Robins said to the Coventry Telegraph: “At the end of the day he is a good player who I think has probably been lacking in a bit of confidence and self belief and that will do him the world of good. He’s scored goals in his career and that’s why we signed him. And against Luton he showed the player that we signed because he was a real handful.
And Finally
- Forest Green have, rather unsurprisingly, won a sustainability in sport award. The beat have Manchester City and Lords Cricket Ground to be awarded the first ever ‘Green Heart Hero’ Sustainability in Sport Award, by the Climate Coalition at a ceremony in Parliament. Yeah, you don’t get three points for it, do you Cooperman?
Nothing to fear but fear itself.