Grantham preview – Phil Bennett
Jan 8, 2019

As the Whitby game was brought forward, we now have a blank Saturday on the 12th, so must wait a further week to our next game, away at Grantham on January 19th.

I am sure the extended break will give Andy and Alex time to work with the squad and devise a plan to get something out of that game at The South Kesteven Stadium. Like many Rangers fans, we do not enjoy our trips to that ground as you are too far from the pitch due to it also being an athletics stadium with the 400 metres running track making your view even harder.

However, that was very different to my first ever away game at Grantham, who then played on London Road right in the town centre. It was season 1983/4, and we were back in the Northern Premier League after a short stay in the Alliance League. We had already beaten Grantham 4-0 at home and the return fixture was played on Sunday 29th January 1984. The Football Archives website has this game played the previous day but as I was there, and I know it was a Sunday and our statistician Chris Elsley agrees. The game was memorable because an official was injured during the game and replaced by a portly Grantham Director. He was so far behind play he did not flag Chris Arnott offside (as he was well offside) but allowed him to run on and score the only goal of the game. The following season home game was also remarkable as following on from a 1-1 away draw the return fixture was 30/03/1985 and we won 6-2, remarkable in that all our six goals were headers.

Our first meetings in the mid-eighties, were in the Northern Premier League, but we have also played league games with Grantham in the Southern League and Southern League Midland. Since 1983/4 season we have played 10 away games at Grantham winning 4 drawing 2 and losing 4, with a goal’s ratio of 13 for and 12 against. There is one other away game which does not feature, and that is the 25/01/2014 games which was abandoned when the score was 0-0. Historically the games statistics show the potential for a close game, so we need to ensure that we try to get something from a mid-table Grantham side who appear to win as many as they lose, so a draw could be a good outcome

 

Other fixtures played on January 19th this century

 

2002       Chelmsford        H             2-1          Southern League

2010       Telford                  H            2-0          Conference North

2016       Hednesford        A             1-4          Staffs Senior Cup

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