by Andrew Dobson
Back on August 22nd, 2006, the Alex were drawn away to League 2 Grimsby Town in the League Cup sponsored by Carling. In front of 1,635 as the Alex lined up as a followed:
Tomlinson, Otsemobor, Baudet, O’Donnell, Jones, Lowe, O’Connor, Ricks, Vaughan, Varney, Maynard. Substitutes: Williams, Kempson, Flynn, Higdon, Rodgers.
After a winless start to the season, manager Dario Gradi replaced Luke Rodgers and Michael Higdon with the pace and power of Luke Varney and a young Nicky Maynard. The breakthrough arrived after 38 minutes as Maynard ran onto Varney’s pass to slot the Alex ahead. Alex demonstrated the gulf between the sides with two second-half goals scored by teenager Michael O’Connor and a late penalty from Ryan Lowe.
Unfortunately, the Blundell Park scoreboard didn’t register the 3-0 scoreline as it still read Grimsby 0-0 Crewe!!!!!!
After the match, Dario Gradi commented
“Luke can be who he wants to be and that Nicky has got ability but he needs to show it”
The reward for progressing to the next round was a match against Wigan Athletic and ultimately a 3rd round with Manchester United.
