By Nathan Jackson
October 17 2006

It's not a game that will ever go down as a classic match and chances were very few and far between in a 0-0 draw. Grimsby had the better of what few chances there were in the game but the game went into penalties and every player with the exception of Jamie Forrester, hit the back of the net.

To say that the start of the game was very uneventful was an understatement and the fact the first noteworty action came in the 17th minute said it all. Nick Hegarty finding himself one-on-one with Marriott before passing to Gary Jones, but the man who scored twice in the playoffs against City couldn't find the back of the net and only found Marriott's hands. It was to prove as Marriott's last consider moments as Simon Raynor replaced him, much to everyone's surprise.

Cryan supplied Cryan with a great ball but his cross just evaded Martin Gritton. In the 37th minute, Mettam forced Barnes into a low save at his near post. However, Grimsby seemed destined to open the scoring just before half time when Danny Boshell beat the offside trap to find himself clear of the Imps defence but Simon Raynor produced an excellent save to tip it around the post and that was the final action of a half that wasn't exactly incident packed.

The lack of action continued into the second half and the first chance came 10 minutes after the break when Mayo thought Brown's header was strong enough to reach Raynor and Peter Bore broke through, the young striker rounded Raynor but he was forced wide and had to cross the ball across the box but Colin Cryan intercepted just in time. Croft replaced McDermott for the visitors.

City then made a substitution as Ollie Ryan going off was met with ironic cheers from City fans after he'd done very little during the game, he was replaced by Forrester whereas Mettam was replaced by Stallard as City went to a 4-3-3 formation. Within seconds and Martin Gritton almost gave City the lead when he pounced on a through ball to be one-on-one with the keeper but his chip was well reached by the goalkeeper. Thorpe then came on for Bore with 15 minutes left. Frecklington was booked soon afterwards.

The game eventually petered out and it was to penalties.

Ex-Imp Ciaran Toner had the first penalty and confidently struck it home, Forrester then stepped up for the Imps but 3 days after hitting 2 penalties for the Imps, he could only hit his penalty straight at the goalkeeper. Tom Newey put his away before Gritton scored City's first, Thorpe made it 3-1 before Frecklington pulled it back to 3-2. Boshell made it 4-2 before Stallard made it 4-3. Ravenhill had to miss to give City a chance but he put his penalty away to give Grimsby a ticket to the second round.