Papa's got a brand new midfielder
Cheltenham Town 2 Grimsby Town 2
Saturday 5 September 2026
Somebody should tell Town that a football match lasts 90 minutes. For the fourth game running David Artell's side finished level, and for the third time in eight days they did it 2-2, this time by playing badly for 45 minutes at Cheltenham and then well for the 45 that followed. Two down at the break, level with eight minutes left, pressing for a winner at the end.
Cheltenham will feel this was given away. They came into the game sixth, with two wins, a draw and a defeat, and winners of both their home fixtures so far. Town were still undefeated, a win and three draws, and a point below them.
Whaddon Road is low and tight, the stands close to the pitch. One of the food outlets is called Robins Grill. Disappointment from me they didn’t grill actual robins.
Artell made three changes from Tuesday's draw at Accrington, one of them from necessity. David Harrington had signed on a seven-day emergency loan from Bolton as cover for the injured Christy Pym and went straight in, having been a Grimsby player for roughly a day.
Cian Doyle and Charles Vernam came in for Ryley Reynolds and Andy Cook. Harvey Rodgers, Maldini Kacurri, Cameron McJannet and Jayden Sweeney made up the back four, Geza Turi anchored the midfield, and Iwan Morgan, wide on Tuesday, moved into the centre to lead the line, with Vernam and Sonny Finch either side of him.
Cheltenham were excellent for 45 minutes, full of energy, tight in the marking, giving Town nowhere to play. Town spent the first ten minutes chasing them, and Rodgers managed a shot from 20 yards that finished nearer the roof than the goal.
On 12 minutes the home side led. Jake Evans came in off the right unattended, Doyle got back a fraction late, and the ball sat up for Charlie McCann to take it first time past Harrington.
Town did respond, and Robbie Cundy dealt with nearly all of it. He cut out a low cross from Kieran Green, then read Green's flick before Finch could reach it, and then headed a corner wide at the far post in the last action of the half, the only thing he got wrong all afternoon.
Morgan threw the ball long into the box, repeatedly, and Cheltenham dealt with it, repeatedly. Shifted in from the wing for this game, he looked lost, and the throws were most of what Town got out of him.
Jonathan Tomkinson was booked for a foul on Vernam. Shaun McWilliams appealed for a penalty on 34 minutes and got a free kick the other way. Seven minutes later Cameron McJannet took Evans down and the referee pointed. Andreas Weimann sent Harrington the wrong way with the air of a man completing a routine piece of admin.
That should have been that. Artell responded to Town's first-half abjection with two subs: Mark Shelton and Cook on, Doyle and Vernam off. He could have brought more off.
Ninety seconds into the second half Shelton scored. Rodgers crossed from the right, the ball dropped on the penalty spot, and the York City loanee swept it first time past Wyll Stanway. It was his first touch in a Grimsby shirt.
Everything after that ran one way. Cook spent the half being a nuisance, which was more than anyone had managed before the break. Pierce Sweeney was the reason it stayed at 2-1 as long as it did.
Cook took a pull-back from Turi and shot without conviction; Sweeney blocked it. Cook reached the rebound; Sweeney blocked that too, from about a yard.
The near misses stacked up. Morgan's corner landed on the roof of Stanway's net. Shelton's free kick from the edge of the box hit the wall. Green drilled a low cross into the side-netting.
Reynolds and Fin Cartwright came on for Morgan and Finch on 68 minutes. On 75 Cartwright met a Shelton cut-back and Sweeney blocked him too.
The equaliser arrived on 82 minutes and it came, inevitably, from the other Sweeney. Jayden's delivery from the right was met at the near post by Green, who flicked a header back across Stanway and in. Green had been booked three minutes earlier for arguing about a free kick.
Steve Cotterill had by then spent most of the half standing outside his technical area, sometimes offering Shelton his views. When Pierce Sweeney went down with cramp near the end, on the touchline and close enough to have rolled clear of the ball without much effort, he stayed where he was.
The referee let the game run on. Sweeney eventually shuffled off like Lieutenant Dan.
Nothing came of it until the whistle. Then it did. Cotterill went to talk to Shelton. Town's staff came over. By the time it had been pulled apart the referee had shown red cards to Cotterill and to Town's first-team coach analyst Ray Shearwood.
Cheltenham's assistant Rob Edwards said afterwards that the cramp had started it. That does not explain the several minutes of nothing in between. A manager two up at half time who finishes with a point and a suspension is usually arguing with himself.
So, for Town that’s four draws this season then, three of them 2-2. On Tuesday at Accrington, Town were two up inside 37 minutes and drew. On Saturday they were two down inside 41 and drew. Town appear to be working through every available route to the same scoreline. Bristol Rovers at Blundell Park next Saturday. A full 90 minutes of maximum effort would be nice.