City 0 Grimsby 0

 Martin Allen and Russell Slade won’t have learned a lot from Saturday’s spying mission.

Two of the candidates for the City job took the chance to watch their potential new charges in action.

But the hospitality of the 1911 Club must have been far more welcoming than the dire spectacle on the pitch.

There was little to be gained from enduring the most turgid home game of the season.

City are a team who have forgotten how to win at home. We already knew that.

And they are currently running low on confidence. We knew that too.

So messrs Allen and Slade are unlikely to have gained a jump on the gaggle of wannabes jostling for Wednesday’s appointment.

What Saturday did probably achieve was to remove Wayne Jacobs from the hat. He admitted as much himself afterwards.

The chairmen had made it pretty clear from the start that Stuart McCall’s right-hand man was not a serious contender.

But Jacobs, who has taken the side for the last week, has pushed for an interview.

A big part of that was always going to be the practical – and sadly his team’s floundering efforts to break down a Grimsby side without a win for five months kyboshed that.

City have become too predictable; too stuck in their ways. It doesn’t take Einstein, let alone Allen or Slade, to work out that the James Hanson way is the only way at present.

The easiest route is to launch the ball long at the head of Hanson and see what comes of it.

For the first 15 minutes, City tried to play it around brightly and keep passes on the floor. But given the gluey state of the pitch at the moment and the fragile belief, it didn’t take long to start seeking Hanson again.

Michael Flynn admitted they have become too formulaic and stale.

He said: “Saturday was the same as most weeks. We started bright, faded, picked up again and then faded again.

“Full credit to Wayne Jacobs, who’s been brilliant. He’s lifted the lads, worked well with us on the training ground and prepared everyone in the best way but our performance wasn’t there.

“It’s been a dour week with Stuart leaving and a dour game just topped it off.”

Dour is a polite word for it. This game really lived down to expectations.

A team without a home win for four months against a team without a win anywhere for five. It was hardly going to be Champions’ League.

Jacobs, appealing to the glass half empty brigade, pointed out that at least the gap to the relegation trapdoor remains the same. It was the smallest crumb of comfort.

He deserved better from his afternoon in the hot-seat. Such a fiercely-loyal character to the City cause through the good times and bad, Jacobs knows that his Valley Parade tenure is ticking away fast.

It was surely not too much to ask that the players should rally round and deliver a display worthy of his commitment to the club.

For a little while, it looked like that might be the case.

City began with a spring in their step and an early goal could have led to several. But the closest they came was Gareth Evans skipping down the left flank before cutting in to test Nick Colgan.

The veteran keeper, a City trialist under McCall, turned the shot across goal, where Scott Neilson took the wrong option and declined to have a go himself for a poor cross which was hacked clear.

And that was the pattern that the rest of the afternoon followed.

City enjoyed some success when they got the ball wide but it was too easy to hit the ball long down the middle, where Hanson was well shackled by centre halves Olly Lancashire and Rob Atkinson.

With no rallying figure on the touchline, there was a general feeling of disinterest seeping around the stadium.

Grimsby were no better and lacked any real ambition. In their dodgy predicament you would have expected a bit of a go but apart from a Peter Sweeney shot from a short-corner routine, there was little to stir their travelling support.

City picked it up after the break and there were one or two glimmers of promise but too often the shots were straight at Colgan or the final cross would sail harmlessly into the Kop.

With time almost up, Flynn’s free-kick deflected off the wall and fell at Matt Clarke’s feet eight yards out. The big man didn’t react quick enough, though, and the best chance of the lot had disappeared with Peter Bore’s frantic clearance.

“The lads gave what they got but it’s just that little bit of confidence missing,” admitted Jacobs.

“We’re halfway there with the attitude and effort but there are bits that need sorting. Everybody’s got an opinion about the situation and that’s only right but Saturday is the time for footballers to have their say and that’s what I told them.

“I can’t thank them enough. If it was down to attitude, focus and the way they’ve conducted themselves through the week we’d have won easily.

“I’m disappointed by the result. I’m a fan of Bradford City and, like any other, I wanted to go home with all three points.

“But I’m also probably the proudest man in Bradford to have stood there as manager of Bradford City for that game.”

Jacobs took training again today and will begin the homework for next weekend’s short trip to Accrington. But he knows deep down that somebody else will be bossing the team that day.

Whoever that someone is needs to extricate a decent club from the doldrums.