The mariners made the 183-mile round trip to Leicestershire for their relegation battle against Ansty Nomads.

With both teams fielding depleted teams due to injury crisis in both ranks. The game started with no substitutes for either team.

Hayley Cox made two enforced changes to the squad with Darcie Proud and Eden Pedersen joining an injury list that included Sophie Grey, Emily Blyth, Chloe Wilkinson, Saskia Rawbone, Laura Robinson, Evie Revell, Hermione Clapham, Jasmine Lacey and Charlotte Goodwin who were all unavailable for this fixture.

When the fixture kicked off in the downpour the Mariners found themselves ahead in the 4th minute, A neatly worked move saw Beth Wharton disguise a pass through the Anstey defence to the onrushing Lily Jackin who let the ball roll across her body and with a swing of the left foot curled the ball around the onrushing keeper and into the bottom corner, kissing the post on its way in. Celebrations were cut short when an assistant’s flag went up and after some deliberation with the referee the goal was chalked off due to Wilson being in a offside position over on the right wing away from where the ball was played. With the Mariners out of position celebrating what should have been a legitimate goal, Ansty wasted no time smashing the ball up field which took a deflection and went out for a corner, A quick taken corner was then headed in at the back post.

Less than 8 minutes later with a still shell-shocked Grimsby, Ansty made it 2-0 a misplaced clearance spun wide for Ansty second corner of the game, and they made this one count also. The initial corner was headed back from where it came with the Mariners now all out of position, the ball was whipped back in to the back post where a choice of two Ansty attackers had the easy option of heading in unchallenged, Poor defending from the Mariners which did not get much better.

The Mariners were their own worst enemy for the opening twenty minutes again conceding unable to put more than three passes together and a sloppy corner where Ansty made it 3 goals from 3 corners, and it was exactly the same as the previous two with the ball driven to the back post and met with a towering header from the Ansty attack losing their man and rising highest to thunder the header home.

An on-field team talk was had by captain Brighton which saw an improvement in the Grimsby play, Kershaw seeing a dangerous freekick fly just over the bar, DeJonge stinging the keepers fingers and Jacklin being just beaten to the through ball by the Ansty ‘keeper. Grimsby continued to push and got their opening into the game on 41 minutes, a through ball from Jacklin sent DeJonge rushing through with what most attackers would of thought was a lost cause, DeJonge managed to bravely beat the onrushing Ansty keeper and prod the ball underneath her before getting clattered with the ball rolling into the bottom corner.

Half time 3-1

Hayley Cox kept her side outside during halftime for the team talk and The Mariners started the second half the brighter of the two sides, pushing to try and reduce the deficit. Chances for both teams came and went with the lion share of possession and dominance being in the Mariners favour. With the 2 goal deficit still there at 65 minutes a tactical tweak saw the Mariners throw caution to the wind and change to a back 3 pushing more players forward and it didn’t take long to reap the rewards as the pacey DeJonge was sent racing into the box by a delicious Wilson pass, Shaping to shoot DeJonge coxed the Ansty defender into a diving slide tackle before shifting the ball the opposite way and being wiped out. Captain Brighton stepped up and slotted the resulting spot kick low to the keepers left who guessed correctly but the quality of the finish left her with no chance.

The Mariners continued to push to grab the equaliser with Jacklin seeing a delightful Kershaw cross skip off her head and Wharton stinging the keepers’ hands from range. As time ticked away Anstey stuck to players behind the ball and dug in leaving 1 upfront to chase down clearances. Time ticked away with Ansty winning three corners in succession and keeping all of them in the corner. The referee blew for full time with the slow start costing the Mariners dear who just did not have enough time left to find the late equaliser their second half performance deserved.

Captain Danielle Brighton joined us following the defeat stating, “naturally we are all disappointed by the result as we feel that the goals they scored where preventable however, I am proud of how the girls fought back and got two goals just unfortunately ran out of time to get the third our second half performance deserved.”

Assistant Manager Paul Shaw said, “You give any team a 3-0 lead and your in for a rough afternoon, We were incredibly unfortunate to see Jacklin’s goal ruled out which would of made the perfect start for us and then they have gone down the other end and scored. The next two goals are errors from us that have allowed the free runs at the back post which we need to be better from. Our defence has been one of the most solid in the league to date, so they were extremely disappointing goals to concede and just had a bad day at the office. Following the first 20 minutes though the girls where imperious, Brave attacking play from DeJonge to grab the first goal back taking a good whack for her troubles and then again clever play to win us a penalty which was slotted away expertly. If we play like we did in the 2nd half, we can blow teams away but you cant play the way we did in the first 20 and expect anything from the game. We move onto next week cup semi final against local rivals Cleethorpes Town which promises to be a firecracker of a game.”

Grimsby Town next fixture sees them play Cleethorpes Town on Sunday 17th March in the County Challenge Plate Semi-Final with the venue TBC.

UTM