(Insert Cheese Here)

So the transfer deadline has come and gone and there has been little activity down at Blundell Park other than the acquisition of Grimsby bred Matt Bloomer to the squad.

To a lot of fan’s this inactivity seems a little less than inspiring especially considering most of the other teams in the relegation dogfight have added some more bodies to their ranks. However Grimsby must have one of the biggest squads out of all the lower placed teams and it could be argued getting anyone of any real quality to commit to a team who’s league status is in jeopardy is highly unlikely. Yes the current squad is under-performing but surely there is enough quality there and would more tinkering really help so much? Then there is the fact that we have only been able to rid ourselves of Ricky Ravenhill so most of the allocated wage bill may well be taken up. A cool cash injection by the chairman just to help ensure survival would have been the call of the day for some, especially with the new stadium looming (pointless/crippling in The Conference?), but I’m sure Mr. Fenty has used his enough of his own cash to help keep us afloat as it is and he hasn’t bottomless pockets. I’m not sure what I can and can’t write about this so I will steer clear of delving further but in my opinion Grimsby Town Football Club would already be all but dead and buried without the chairman.

So as it stands we have just the one late signing drafted in and that is Matt Bloomer, Grimsby born and bred and here to bulk the defensive ranks. It seems glaringly obvious that if Town had gone into the season with more than two recognised centre-backs then we would have surely amassed more points on the board. Although the signing of Matty alone seems less than inspirational, it will be good to at least have a bit more defensive cover as we come to the (dreaded) run-in. ‘Blooms’ has been training with the squad for quite a while now to save on travel to Cambridge so hopefully he will have built up a bit of an understanding with the rest of the defenders and the way Alan Buckley likes things to be done. Hopefully then it won’t take him too long a time to settle in as is often the case when a new player arrives. I was asked by Jake to come up with four reasons why Bloomer would be a good signing and my main reasons would have to be: cover at right-back, cover in the two centre-back positions and at least another defender to throw in at left back instead of a central midfielder! Added to this there is also the fact that he is a Grimsby lad, so with any luck he will put his body on the line for the Town cause and play with a passion which has eluded our current crop in the main.

Some would point to the fact that he has barely figured for a side scrapping for Conference survival, but on the counter side he has also been a regular in the Lincoln side that so often reached the ‘heady heights’ of the League Two playoffs. He will have experienced a lot of scrappy games at this level and will be well aware of the sort of threat this leagues striker’s pose. With any luck his addition will help to bolster our defence somewhat and will add a bit of stability and regularity which is so vital in the defensive positions. Month long loans are all well and good (in a perfect world we wouldn’t need them but that is another matter) but at the back the same heads working together week in week out has been proven as the key to a mean defence.

So with a bit more settled back four we can start to look at the rest of the team. Using kids is always a risky business, especially in a relegation battle, but especially with the recent dire string of results I would like to see our squad utilised a bit more. Much has been said about the reasons behind Peter Bore’s virtual disappearance from the first team squad, but he is another Grimsby lad and hopefully his goal against Doncaster in the reserves and his display coming on at Torquay are signals of his intentions to buckle down and help the cause. There is no doubt in most people’s minds that he is a genuine raw talent and his pace and ability to turn a game should surely be galvanised in this, our most desperate of hours. Andy Taylor is another who seems to have been frozen out somewhat, although far from the finished article he has been banging them in for the reserves on a regular basis and I have seen glimpses of him being a useful little player. With a full use of the squad available (and hey, the senior’s haven’t exactly been pulling up trees recently) he should be getting some minutes in and being used to cause problems with his pace (ala Bore), especially late on. Danny North seemed to be putting in some real solid displays on Buckley’s return (when we were winning matches don’t forget) and I wouldn’t blame him for feeling a bit ‘hard done by’ for not seeing much game time recently.

The fact that Martin Patterson is said to be returning to parent club Stoke when his current loan expires means we will surely have to utilise some of these youngsters a bit more. However we do have Tony Thorpe with us for the rest of the season and when his fitness is back up I hope he can turn into a good player for us. There are those who bemoan the fact he is a striker from The Conference but there can be no doubting his pedigree -his goals to games ratio throughout his career is second to none and although he failed to find the net in his last stint at Town, some of his build up play was excellent. He did manage to chalk up a few assists for us last time around and that is more than any other player is doing at present!

Then there is the keeper and the midfield, but the latter perplexes me as much as any other Town fan…..

Rik Bushell