Match Thread Away vs Grimsby town - Tue 22 December 7pm kick off

Whilst Grimsby have called off their next three matches, due to a player on loan at Spalding United testing positive, Spalding United's home match today is ON in front of paying spectators, at the same ground that they (and Jock Curran, the player who tested positive) played at last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Grimsby's chairman is now trying to get the season suspended.

There's something fishy going on.

 

What you need to remember is Spalding aren’t a professional club. They will at most be doing two evening training sessions a week. Players on loan at clubs like that will generally be in training at their parent club every day. He will have had way more contact with people at Grimsby than will ha with people at Spalding. He may not even have been to Spalding since last weekend depending on the days they train and when he started having symptoms

 

So, we know he played for Spalding, at their ground, last Saturday and they are playing today, at the same ground, 7 days on.

Meanwhile Grimsby said he was last in contact with them on Tuesday, at their training ground, but they claim they can't play us at Blundell Park 11 days on.

Seems to me that Spalding are more of a professional club than Grimsby.

 

Maybe though Spalding shouldn’t be playing their match even if symptoms didn’t present until after it. It could be from them he picked it up as non-professional players will not be able to isolate as much as pro ones. They may be spreading it despite not showing symptoms but they won't know as they certainly won’t be able to afford to test.

 

That was my understanding as well which might well explain some of the shenanigans at Grimsby. The takeover has been on and off for some time now with a number of potential purchasers but Fenty doesn't seem to know what he wants. I think currently it's in an 'off' phase but could equally be back 'on' next week or next month. It's further confused by Grimsby wanting to sell their current site for redevelopment and build a new ground. Fenty just happens to be deputy leader of the local council!

Seemingly separate to this but clearly linked, their chairman (Philip Day?) has already written to the EFL trying to get League 2 games suspended and bringing the schedule to a halt. He has also been making noises about lower league clubs having to pay for Covid 19 testing which he believes the EFL and/or the FA should pay for since the clubs are simply complying with their Covid protocol! There's more going on there than Grimsby simply being concerned about the next couple of fixtures.

 

That doesn't make sense to me either and the EFL need to get their house in order as well.

 

And so the backtracking from Grimsby begins: https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2020/september/an-update-from-the-club/

 

Absolutely not the Club's discretion. On the odd occasion that a club has called a game off, without the Football League's permission, it has ended badly for the club.