Man of the Match V Grantham Town

The conditions weren't great, and that is putting it mildly and to be honest, neither were Trafford! Grantham would have considered themselves very unlucky going in at half time 0-0. We just didn't get going!

The second half was more even but we just didn't threaten their keeper. Grantham finally took the lead in the 60 something minute and this seemed to kick us up the backside as we now came into the game... we needed to!

10 minutes later and I couldn't hold it in any longer. I had to go to the toilet! What timing. I heard a loud cheer. Hurry up wee! Not long after, another loud cheer!!!! What was going on?

I quickly washed my hands and ran outside. It was 1-1 and Grantham had had a man sent off for saying something containing swear words to the ref! 

To be fair to Grantham, they still held their own with only 10 men but as we entered the last 10 minutes, we started to make the advantage count and with 1 minute to go, Shelton was put through and made no mistake with a cool finish. I nearly gave Sempie a heart attack with my celebrations!

We might not have played well as a team but there were a handful of solid individual performances. Nia and Luke Heron had very decent games and Kieran O'Hara was, up until the 86th minute, man of the match for his two or three quality saves in the 1st half but at the last minute, Dave Hornby and myself plumped for Ste 'Mini' Mason. He was tenacious and tough in the tackle and for a 'mini' CB, he wins more than his fair share of headers! Plus the fact the Grantham fans (nicknamed the GINGERbreads) gave him constant stick for being ginger (clearly strawberry blond, right Mini?), we just had to give it to him!

So well done Ste Mason and to all at Trafford FC. It's these kind of wins that prove vital. We move onto Tuesday (my birthday!!) against Fylde. Another 3 points would make a great present!

Andy Glinka