Lennie Lawrence Standing His Ground!!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 02/11/2001

DESPITE being under pressure, Lennie Lawrence is determined to keep things moving at Town and concentrating on the game rather than the speculation and rumour. He must know that he is on a short fuse now and he is looking to have a turnaround at Wimbledon tomorrow.

Although Lawrence received the backing of the board yesterday, it is still on the cards that Barnsley may make a move for him if reports that they have shortlisted him for the job at Oakwell are true.

Telling the Grimsby Telegraph that the next fortnight will provide a good opportunity to relieve the pressure on both him and his squad, Lawrence said: "If you think what you're doing is right you have to stick with it. It worked in the early part of the season."

"The fact that we are not at home for a couple of weeks is a big thing for us and it's an advantage at the moment. You wouldn't want another home game this week. For now I'm happy that there's one game a week and that the next couple of games are away. We can get the confidence back."

"What is a certainty is that we need fresh legs and I've had a savage reminder of that. I'm seriously considering making three or four changes. Stuart Campbell is a possibility because he's trained, and then there's Grovesy, Menno and Jonny Rowan."

On Chapman in defence he said: "If he's fit I'll play him there. What you miss is the link going forward. It's difficult with the distribution but defensively he looked sound. With two away games that's all I'm bothered about."

But Lennie has also made it clear that the present inconsistency is unacceptable.

"A lot of them are young and I bet six or seven of them that started against Norwich didn't have 50 games under their belt. That makes it hard to cope if we find ourselves a goal down. There's going to be inconsistency in a team like this but the level of it is not acceptable."

"On Friday there were no weaknesses and everybody was on their game. It was lovely. We sent out the same team on Tuesday and it was obvious after half an hour that they had tired legs and were below par."

Grimsby Town: Coyne, Chapman, Beharall, Groves, Broomes, Gallimore, Butterfield, Campbell, Coldicott, Pouton, Willems, Boulding, Allen, Jevons, Rowan, Croudson, Bolder, Thompson.

David Nielsen is hoping to be in the Wimbledon team against Grimsby tomorrow! Click here for full story!

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