Grimsby Town U19 Shadows made it five wins from five since the turn of the year as they continued their good form against Barnsley U19 Shadows in EFL CEFA NL1.
At a blustery Franklin college second place Town welcomed fourth place Barnsley hoping to keep the pressure up on league leaders Doncaster Rovers. Dunn was in the thick of the action in the opening stages almost setting up Haines in the second minute but the midfielder fired over the bar. Dunn was causing all sorts of issues down the Tyke’s left and minutes later a ball in between full back and goalkeeper resulted in the Mariners winger been brought down for a penalty. Fin Drakes cooly dispatched the spot kick to give Grimsby the lead after 5 minutes.
Ten minutes later Harris Dunn produced a moment of magic beating two players and then driving into the box. Once again he was upended, this time by the defender giving Drakes another spot kick which he again made no mistake in finding the net.The game rather settled down at this point and Town enjoyed lots of the ball with Barnsley rarely threatening the Grimsby back line. Just before the interval some great work by Haines in the middle of the park saw his through pass find Kendall. One on one Kendall slid the ball to keepers left to find the bottom corner and send Grimsby in 3-0 to the good.
Grimsby made 2 changes at half time perhaps with next weeks big EFL National Cup last 16 game vs Ipswich in mind. Edwards replaced Haines and Butters came on for Wootton. Edwards was soon to get in on the action providing an inch perfect through ball for Kendall to race on to and the striker provided the perfect finish for the move putting Town 4 up on the hour mark.With the points in the bag Grimsby took their foot off the gas, Butters should have perhaps had a penalty on 75 minutes but the referee didn’t see it that way. Butters wasn’t to be denied however as in the 89th minute the winger broke the offside trap and rolled the ball beyond Barnsley’s onrushing keeper to make it 5-0, the same score line as in the reverse fixture at Oakwell back in October.
With leaders Doncaster Rovers slipping up away at Sunderland, GTFSS now are only one point off top spot but with 2 games in hand. Grimsby take a break from league action next week as they travel to Ipswich Town Shadows in the last 16 of the U19 EFL CEFA Cup.
Full time: Grimsby Town U19 Shadows 5-0 Barnsley U19 Shadows
Scorers: Drakes 5’ (pen) & 15′ (pen), Kendall 44’ & 60’, Butters 89’.
