Football: Angell provides the Cordon Bleu finish

Stockport County 2 Grimsby Town

Stockport County 2

Grimsby Town 0

IT IS a predictable and patronising put-down to describe a club like Stockport as unpretentious. In truth, any club that carries a restaurant critic and a wine columnist in its match programme has fancier ideas than most.

Yet it took the last 11 minutes to transform this insipid brew into something more palatable. County have what it takes to be one of the better sides in the First Division, which is not to say that it is easy to imagine them in the Premiership. Already solid at the back, they should also be good for a healthy goal tally this season, now they have brought in Ian Moore alongside Brett Angell.

The big striker was not exactly the Angell of the North during unproductive spells with Sunderland and Everton, but he has always scored goals for Stockport. On Saturday he always looked likely to break the deadlock again but, with Paul Cook lacking his normal precision in midfield, the quality of service was not quite up to standard.

Gary Megson, shouting himself hoarse from the dug-out, had come to the conclusion that he needed to rearrange things and the introduction of a third striker, the vigorous young Aaron Wilbraham, did the trick.

A handful from the start, it was his knock-down that produced Angell's first goal and he could have scored himself before Angell grabbed a second.

It made it all look rather more straightforward than it had been, because there had been periods of the game where Grimsby were threatening to take control. David Smith and Wayne Burnett in midfield gave them a quality of movement that Stockport often failed to match and it was only the lack of impact of their front-men, Lee Ashcroft and Jack Lester, that denied them a first away point.

Last season was one of the best for Grimsby, with the scalps of Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday in the Coca-Cola Cup as well as promotion to the First Division. But the lesson of this defeat was that they are going to have to make vulnerable sides work harder than this if they are to make an impression this term.

Goals: Angell (78) 1-0, Angell (90) 2-0.

Stockport County (4-4-2): Nash; Connelly, Flynn, McIntosh, Woodthorpe; Byrne, Gannon (Wilbraham, 67), Cook, Cooper (Dinning, 74); Angell, Moore. Substitute not used: Phillips.

Grimsby Town (4-4-2): Davidson; McDermott, R Smith, Handyside (Lever, 22), Gallimore (Nogan, 81); Coldicott (Black, 81), Burnett, Groves, D Smith; Ashcroft, Lester. Referee: T Jones (Barrow).

Booking: Stockport: Flynn.

Attendance: 6,199.

Man of the match: Angell.