Notts County 0, Grimsby Town 1

Meadow Lane, Saturday February 4, 2006

A GOAL by Michael Reddy ensured Notts County did not make it six consecutive games unbeaten at Meadow Lane as they were defeated by Grimsby on this day back in 2006.

Notts were the in-form side going into this match with the chance to go to sixth in the League Two table.

But the result was to have far bigger significance as the defeat heralded the start of a massive slide down the table under Gudjon Thordarson, as Notts lost their following four games and won just once in their remaining 15 league matches to almost go out of the Football League.

It went down to the last day of the campaign but a 2-2 with Bury saw the Magpies secure their status among the top 92 clubs in the country, during a bad few months in which young defender Kelvin Wilson was also sold to Preston.

For this match, there was a good atmosphere inside Meadow Lane with Grimsby bringing a healthy following to help make up the 6,456 crowd.

Afterwards, Thordarson had reason to feel aggrieved after seeing Reddy's goal five minutes before the break, which proved to be the winner, not ruled out for offside.

But the Notts boss was honest enough to admit his team did not deserve much from the game as a result of their overall display.

And although he was disappointed the offside was not spotted, Thordarson felt more let down by his players.

It was a big test against a side in the top three. A team that had hammered Notts 4-0 earlier in the season.

But on this occasion, Grimsby were out of form, losing their previous two games while Notts had collected 13 points in January.

Notts had not lost in five games at Meadow Lane, four of them victories, and optimism was high.

However, in this match, they lacked that killer touch in front of goal and allowed Grimsby to stifle the game.

The visitors' game-plan worked perfectly with former Magpie Paul Bolland working hard in midfield to break up play.

But the Magpies failed to raise themselves above that and it cost them three points which would have propelled them into the play-off places.

Notts had a great chance before the visitors opened the scoring.

David Pipe and Mark DeBolla combined and Pipe picked out Mike Edwards, running in at the back post, with his cross, but the midfielder volleyed just over the bar from close range.

It proved costly as the visitors took the lead out of nothing.

Tom Newey booted a long ball forward and Reddy got in behind the defence, with a suspicion of offside, and finished past Kevin Pilkington from the edge of the box.

It was to prove their only shot on target, with only three off target as well.

In the second half Notts had plenty of possession and crosses but failed to do anything with them. Notts' only shot on target came from a free-kick.

At the time, it was deemed as a mere setback. But, in the long run, it was to prove just the start of a terrible, terrible slide down the table.

Notts: Pilkington, Wilson, Baudet, Martin (Long, 78), Pipe, Edwards, Crooks, Needham (Scoffham, 69), Palmer, Dadi, DeBolla. Subs not used: Ullathorne, Marshall, O'Callaghan.

Grimsby: Mildenhall, Cohen, Newey, Futcher, Croft, Toner, Bolland (Barwick, 82), Woodhouse, Goodfellow (Parkinson, 78), Reddy, Mendes. Subs not used: Murray, North, Downey.