Kean on the edge as beige Rovers relinquish lead

Sunderland’s 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at the Stadium of Light may have come courtesy of some late goals, but they were very welcome from the neutral’s point of view.

Despite being handicapped by a number of injuries, Rovers manager Steve Kean sent his side out for the second half with the sole intention of remaining rigid and not conceding at any cost.

At no point did they show any ambition to go forward and effectively end the match as a contest by scoring a second goal. It was negative, uninspiring but quite frankly disgusting too.

Sebastian Larsson’s precise free-kick gave Sunderland all three points – albeit aided by a suspect defensive wall which made the Berlin Wall circa November 1989 look sturdy.

The writing must be on the wall for Kean – his team’s performances remain monotonous, tentative and dull.

Africa: A continent in crisis or going through changes?

The 2010 World Cup was billed as Africa’s tournament. This was the moment in history when the African teams would come to the forefront of world football, breaching the Euro-South American dominance of the previous eighty years.

South Africa were on home territory and were guaranteed huge support. Algeria had qualified, albeit controversially, by beating Egypt who went on to win that year’s Cup of Nations. Nigeria and Cameroon had brushed off failure to qualify for the previous tournament by returning to familiar surroundings on the global stage. And then came the two most attractive nations, Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire, who possessed squads jam-packed with household names to Champions League-watchers.

Rob’s rant: What Scott should have said

A few weeks into the season and the table already looks pretty bleak. The widespread optimism which spread through the majority of the Grimsby Town fanbase is evaporating rapidly. And five games into the campaign, it seems even Rob Scott is feeling the heat.

Confronting a minority of Town fans unhappy with the team’s performance in the 2-1 defeat to Darlington, Scott managed to pen himself into the Mariners ‘quotable’ history books, joining John Fenty’s “What about the orange?” and Russell Slade’s Pinault-themed rant:

“If you don’t like it, don’t f*cking come.”

Only a brave manager makes such an outlandish statement and risks alienating supporters. Indeed, the rant has only served to further highlight Grimsby Town as unprofessional and a footballing joke. On the back of the drubbing at Braintree, it is not the type of PR the club could do with.

It was though a ‘heat of the moment’ reaction from Scott and there was, in fact, some justification in the confrontation.

Ever since I began following the Mariners, even back in the second tier, Blundell Park had a large contingent of moaners and boo boys. These people are miserable dicks who like to suck the life out of everything. They moan and complain all week – they moan at work about their boss, they moan to the wife about the wife, they moan to their mates at the pub about the wife and, at the end of the week, they like nothing more than to moan at Grimsby Town.

But even the moaners have their favourite players. Last season it was Peter Bore. A few seasons ago it was Andy Parkinson. These people justify their actions by saying the players need a ‘kick up the arse’. When has this worked? All the booing and moaning does is shatter confidence. The only people who need a kick up the arse are the moaners themselves. If you’re just going to moan, don’t come.

And maybe that’s where Scott went wrong. If Town fans who ‘didn’t like it’ didn’t turn up to Blundell Park over the last ten years, there wouldn’t be a football club for him to manage. But not all berate the players at every opportunity and grumble at decent home performances. Scott should make a clarification and get on with the only thing that will win all the fans over – results on the football pitch.