Away The Gas Grimsby
By Darren Stobbs
After leaving home at 5:30am myself and Martin Hudd set off to organise the day ahead as we embarked on another long away journey, this time to Grimsby.
A new idea for our coach journey was a football based quiz, trying to name the club in question from a well thought out clue. This proved to be a success and a good bit of fun to make the long journey seem shorter!
We eventually set off from The Mem at 7.00am and had a decent journey, stopping along the way for a 45 minute break, before getting to Grimsby at 11:50am to give people plenty of time to enjoy their pre-match plans.
We decided to take a walk on the coastal path in Cleethorpes, taking in the sea air with a warm breeze off the North East coast, towards a pub recognised for hosting away fans called The Swashbuckle.
However, 15 minutes into the walk we came across ‘The Punch Bowl’ on Cleethorpes seafront. We decided this would be our venue to enjoy a pre-match pint. It was more of an eating pub which was doing a decent trade, but still welcoming for people who chose not to eat.
We took a slightly different route back to the ground, with the intention of trying a local chippy for the well known cod and chips in the area. The chip shops were doing a roaring trade and as time was beating us, we decided to go straight into the ground.
Searched on the way in, I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take in my Lion chocolate bar and despite reasoning with the steward he wasn’t giving in, so there I was scoffing it down before entering Blundell Park, not managing to speak to the turnstile operator in the process.
That took the edge off my intention of buying food in the ground, so Grimsby’s loss!
I managed to sneak in my half time orange and bag of steak nuts to my satisfaction and that to become the matchday meal!
As we looked at what would have been on offer, the friendly catering staff couldn’t quite believe the story and asked us to come back at half time! Grimsby were offering a different take to the standard football stadium food around the country, but at £8 each for 3 different choices, my friends also gave it a miss.
We then entered the seating area for the first time in over 10 years and also more than over years since our last Football League game at Blundell Park. The stadium itself has not changed for a number of years and it’s proper old school which also offers a decent atmosphere.
The first half was soon under way and Rovers offered a decent amount of attacking play and were the better side for the opening period. It was a hard working performance and we were much better in the opening 45 minutes than we were after the break. We created a number openings but could not find the net until a corner from Sparkes was headed out to the edge of the box and Macauley Southam-Hales hit a superb volley from the edge of the box into the left corner.
The second half saw a great deal of pressure from Grimsby and at times we were hanging on to our lead, but we defended superbly. Neither keeper had a notable save to make. Promise Omochere was my Man of the Match, battling brilliantly up front and also defending really well at the other end.
Attendance: 7,406 which included 407 Rovers fans.
We left Grimsby at 5:10pm all in high spirits with our first win away from home since Cambridge on 4th January of this year.
Listening to Radio Bristol on the way back, I did find it amusing that Nathan Ellington (The Duke), said it might be that long, but we can’t count nearly all of May, June and July. That is one positive spin on it!
We stopped at Tamworth services on the way back, where we met a fair few Hull City supporters. They unfortunately could not ‘do the job’ over the other side of town, but they did congratulate us on beating their local rivals!
From there back to Bristol we tackled difficult driving conditions with torrential rain at times, arriving back at The Mem just before 10.00pm. An excellent away day, with three clean sheets in a row, for the first time in over three years.
I got the feeling that after a slow start to the season we can see a turn in fortunes for Rovers fans, with finally a sense of organisation, team effort and belief in the Rovers squad.
