It's a time to remember your blessings, it's a time to remember your goals

Happy new year, everyone! 2026 has a hell of an act to follow. And we finished 2025 in some style.

I could barely be arsed to watch the highlights of the Grimsby match. If you trekked to Cleethorpes on Boxing Day, you deserve a medal.

Hammond was back in for the injured Stevens, and Simeu was in for Daniels. Not sure what Sutton has to do to get another shot at the starting line-up, he was superb in September.

As Ryan Williams said on Twitter, we started the game like the players had eaten the whole Toblerones that Frank and Judith had given them the night before. Green had the ball in the back of the net for Grimsby less than 3 minutes in, but it was rightly ruled out for offside. That should have given our defence a kick up the arse, but the home team continued to have the better of the chances and we looked sluggish. Garner had a shot from outside the box tipped wide for a corner; Hudson made a good save from Vernam late on.

We really are having no luck with injuries, and Mellon jnr pulling up with a hamstring injury early in the second half, after scoring a perfect hat-trick in the previous game, was really, really disappointing. He looked devastated, the poor lad. God knows why it took so long to stretcher him off. His dad confirmed after the Walsall game that it looks like he’s torn about 75% of his hamstring and needs surgery, and his season is probably over. Speedy recovery, Junior, and if we don’t see you again, thanks for Northampton and Tranmere.

We’d been about to make subs anyway, but young Michael’s injury made it a triple substitution with Harratt (wahey he’s back!), Hannant and Quigley coming on for Mellon, Hammond and Garner. Shortly after, Smith made a good save at close range from Harratt after Robson put a decent cross into the box; Payne couldn’t get to the rebound.

We put more pressure on in the second half. In the space of about a minute, Monthe and Hannant both had shots saved from outside the box, then Payne’s shot from a tight angle went over the bar. Hudson made a very good save from Vernam with his feet. Drummond probably should have been brought on earlier than the 83rd minute, and God love him, he had a shot cleared off the line. That goal’s coming.

9 minutes of stoppage time were added, but it looked like both teams could have played all night and not scored. It was frustrating, it was a long way to go for a 0-0 draw, and by all accounts we should have been more attacking. Still, keeping a clean sheet at Grimsby is more that Man Utd have managed this season.

Mellon snr insisted that “we didn’t come here to pick up a draw”, which may have raised some eyebrows. He pointed to the gamble of using the last sub to bring on Drummond (in the 83rd minute) as evidence that we were trying to get a winner, and it nearly backfired when Simeu subsequently went down with cramp. As usual, the supporters were fantastic, the referee was crap, but his fiercest criticism was saved for the fixture computer: “Who gave us this fixture? Who gave us this? Who in their right mind said that this was a Christmas fixture?” He argued that there can’t have been another team in the league who travelled as far as us on Boxing Day, followed by trips to Walsall and Bromley in the space of a week. It’s a reasonable point.

Some trips are better than others, though, aren’t they?

'Fortress Bescot'. We'll see about that.

Daniels was back in the starting line-up at Walsall, and Drummond was in for the injured Mellon jnr. It was another somewhat dozy start, with us conceding a corner 20 seconds in, and Hudson making a good save low to his left.

That said, we should have taken the lead 8 minutes in. Why on earth didn’t Payne square it to Garner? It would have been a relative tap-in for him. Thankfully, Garner didn’t have to wait much longer. From Woods’ corner, he put us in front with a beautiful looping header. For a shortarse, he’s lethal in the air, isn’t he?

Half an hour in, Garner posed a different aerial threat, in a nasty clash of heads with Farquharson. Garner had the blood wiped off his face and played on with his head bandaged; Farquharson had to go off with a cut eye. There was no malice in it, they were both going for the ball, but there was only going to be one winner.

The game was getting a bit tasty, and it all kicked off a bit shortly after. Did Kanu punch Monthe? Was it a swing and a miss? Did Monthe have a go back? Flint was then possibly lucky to only get a yellow for pulling Drummond back when he was clean through, and from the resulting free kick, Garner nearly got a second goal with a cheeky backheel.

In fairness, Garner was possibly lucky to not get booked for flying in on Harper. He was determined to let them know he was there, though, and the referee lost patience with his just before half-time, giving him a yellow for a foul off the ball on Flint. Goal, cut head, booking. A well-earned hat-trick.

Kanu had no right to shoot from that angle 5 minutes into the second half. None at all. And on his weaker foot. Piss take. Give credit where it’s due, there was nothing Hudson could do about that. No League Two keeper was saving it.

Bringing Garner off before he got sent off made sense. Quigley clearly wasn’t everyone’s first choice as his replacement, but he made an immediate impact, playing in Drummond, who was brought down by their keeper in the box. Clear penalty. Not given. Micky Mellon said after the game that he didn’t know why he was booked because he wasn’t abusive and didn’t swear, so I’ll say it for you, gaffer: it was a stonewall penalty and the referee was a fucking cunt. Again.

And it fucking happened again 10 minutes later. Drummond wiped out of the edge of the box, clear foul, the defender got nothing of the ball and his reaction suggested he knew it was a foul, BBC Radio WM said it was a foul, nothing given. Fucking cunt of a referee. AGAIN.

Drummond had run his arse off, and his race was run with just under 10 minutes to go, with him struggling with cramp. Time for Harratt, who hadn’t scored since…oh, you know.

It looked in stoppage time like it wasn’t going to be our night. Robson, of all people, had the chance to get the winner with only the keeper to beat, but Roberts came racing out and cleared the ball with a heavy but fair challenge. Harratt had a go from long range, but it was way off. Ah well, two difficult away trips, two draws, can’t really complain.

Nope, guess again, dickhead. We got a corner in the 96th minute – surely the last kick of the game. Woods didn’t seem to be feeling the pressure; in fact, he seemed to be having a nice little chat with the home fans behind the goal. If you know what he said, keep it to your fucking self and don’t get him banned.

I’d said earlier in the game (and during the Tranmere game) that I don’t know why Woods is on set pieces and Pett should be taking them. He’d already got one assist from a corner, but even at this late stage, there was time for him to make me look even more of a fucking idiot. He swung a great ball in, and it was very fitting that it was Kian Harratt at the near post to head it in and get our last goal, and last win, of 2025. Harratt sprinted the length of the pitch punching the air to hug his dad, Tom Pett went arse over tit, and Ryan Woods went over to continue his conversation with the Walsall fans. Absolute scenes.

Harratt was endearingly buzzing after the game, saying “100%” approximately 800 times, bursting with confidence and stressing that the team expect to beat everyone in the league. When asked about how hard it had been not playing, he spoke about being “me own worst enemy…. you don’t help yourself sometimes”, but without any trace of self-pity. Having knocked Walsall off the top of the league, his response to facing Bromley, who replaced them as league leaders, was to shrug his shoulders and say “we’ll go and tick them off as well, won’t we?”. Welcome back, Kian. We missed you.

To round off a fucking brilliant year, the club announced yesterday that Joe Garner had signed a deal until June 30th (as alluded to by Micky Mellon after the Walsall game). Another six months of magnificent shithousery. What a great way to go into 2026.

Wrap up warm for the match today. It’s still fine to wear your Christmas jumper. We’re only 7 points behind Chesterfield, who are currently in the last play-off place in 7th. Tough opponents? Maybe. But I seem to remember us being 23 points behind a certain team last season. Go and tick another one off, lads. KTMFF.

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Photos © Oldham Athletic.