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Back in 1986 I had seen County go down by 7 against Sheffield Wednesday; and three years prior to that by the same margin and score, (7-0), at Hull City not too far away from Blundell Park. Both of those performances came from an abjectly poor team. Rochdale had scored 7 against us in 2007, but that was a totally bizarre game – almost inexplicable. So, conceding seven might not have been more frequent than rare, but they were a one-off. In November 2011 we travelled to Blundell Park, and went down 7-0. It was simply the most spineless; gutless and frankly shameful display in all of the 1,957 County games I have ever seen. It was beyond embarrassing. But first of all let’s look at the context.

Two weeks prior to the game Jim Gannon had returned for a second spell following the totally ludicrous, illogical and possibly contrary to employment law, decision of the administrators to make a football manager redundant. By all means dismissal can be on the basis of performance, but I’m afraid that a manager’s post is simply not one that can be redundant.

His first game back in charge was a narrow defeat at Fleetwood. That was followed by an abysmal display against Southport who were down to 10 men after 5 minutes. We simply were awful. Gannon of course was constrained by the squad left him by Hamann which had failed to make any impact on the Blue Square Premier. He came into the job after Hamann had produced only 3 wins in 19 games and had also seen an FA Cup exit at the first time of asking. His response to the Southport defeat was reported in the Daily Star. “The sending off should have given us the advantage but there are too many social loafers in the squad and I have to get rid of them”.

Some suggest that the phrase “social loafers” was to come back and haunt him at Blundell Park. But those of us who were present were in full accord with it. We held out until the 18th minute – thereafter it was a procession. When the third went in after 32 minutes, ironically scored by Anthony Elding, the video shows a clearly incandescent Mark dashing down the steps behind the goal to berate, (and that’s putting it mildly), the hapless, and hopeless Mark Halstead in the County goal.

The mood darkened amongst what was only a moderate following, and got no better as referee Steve Bratt blew for half time with the Mariners already five in front. It was almost as if the players had gone on strike for having their pitiful performance against Southport criticised. We held Grimsby to only two more in the second half, and I suspect that Ian Ormson and Jon Routledge, who had remained on the bench, were more than glad to have played no part in the debacle.

At the end the anger amongst the County following was palpable. Hoots of derision were directed at the players who scuttled off in shame. That was with the exception of Danny O’Donnell who came across and apologised – but there was little appetite for giving him a hearing.

Gannon had been right about the ‘social loafers’. The Manchester Evening News reported Gannon as saying: “You could use simple words and simple expressions to condemn the performances and the result, but I’ve got to search for some solutions because it can’t get any worse.” At the final whistle, captain Daniel O’Donnell apologised to a section of travelling fans, a gesture Gannon felt should have been repeated by the entire team. “Some of the players apologised to the staff as they were coming off,” said Gannon. “They owe it to themselves, they owe it to the fans, they owe it to the staff, but more importantly they owe it to the people that believe in them to do better than that. But there are other players who don’t apologise, and who don’t take responsibility.

And changes there were. It took Gannon another month to get a first win under his belt. The team that beat Barrow on New Years Day featured only 4 of the starting XI at Blundell Park. The great clear out had started, and continued apace. On the last day of the season we won at Hayes and Yeading. There were two left by then. The Hamann and Evans legacy had been well and truly exorcised.

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Memories of trips to Blundell Park

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Fri	26/08/77	h	Edgeley Park	Football League Division 4 (Tier 4)	W	2	0	3,054
Mon	04/12/78	h	Edgeley Park	Football League Division 4 (Tier 4)	W	2	1	3,300
Sat	05/11/88	h	Edgeley Park	Barclays League Division 4 (Tier 4)	W	3	1	2,064
Sat	14/04/90	h	Edgeley Park	Barclays League Division 4 (Tier 4)	L	2	4	4,065
Sat	05/09/98	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	W	2	0	6,199
Mon	28/12/98	a	Blundell Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	L	0	1	8,058
Sat	07/08/99	a	Blundell Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	W	1	0	5,528
Sat	04/12/99	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	W	2	1	5,581
Sat	11/12/99	a	Blundell Park	FA Cup (Round 3)	L	2	3	3,400
Tues	26/12/00	a	Blundell Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	D	1	1	6,654
Sat	20/01/01	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	D	1	1	6,165
Sat	22/09/01	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	D	3	3	7,834
Tues	26/02/02	a	Blundell Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	L	1	3	6,836
Sat	15/11/03	a	Blundell Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 2 (Tier 3)	D	1	1	4,014
Sat	24/04/04	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 2 (Tier 3)	W	2	1	5,924
Fri	02/09/05	a	Blundell Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	W	3	1	5,381
Tue	24/01/06	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	W	2	1	3,860
Sat	23/09/06	a	Blundell Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	W	1	0	4,708
Sat	30/12/06	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	W	3	0	5,032
Sat	15/09/07	a	Blundell Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	D	1	1	3,726
Sat	22/12/07	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 2 (Tier 4)	D	1	1	4,711
Tue	08/01/08	h	Edgeley Park	Johnstones Paints Trophy (Northern Semi-Final)	L	1	2	3,679
Sat	17/09/11	h	Edgeley Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	W	2	0	3,943
Tues	29/11/11	a	Blundell Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	L	0	7	2,254
Tues	14/08/12	a	Blundell Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	W	2	1	3,670
Mon	01/04/13	h	Edgeley Park	Blue Square Bet Premier (Tier 5)	L	1	2	3,804

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