Cod Almighty | Diary
He said Captain, I said wot
7 June 2018
There are a lot of things we don't know at the moment. We don't know if Danny Collins will renew his contract with us. We don't know if Luke Summerfield will renew his contract with us. We don't know who Michael Jolley has in mind to become his assistant, and still we don't know what next season's shirts look like (or when they'll go on sale).
Then again, we don't know what next season's fixture list is like, or how we'll do. I guess we'll just have to wait.
In the meantime, your West Yorkshire Diary thinks we should stick to what we do know. We know that St Mirren centre-half Harry Davis has become Town's third highly promising new signing of the summer.
And we know that a player who shone for a couple of months in the autumn of 2017 wants to leave because, presumably, there are more glamorous, higher-paying clubs out there willing to take a chance on him – and that's exactly what it will be: a chance.
We all saw last summer that Siriki Dembele has the talent to play at a much higher level than this club will likely reach, yet for the majority of his stay in North East Lincolnshire we didn't really feel the benefit of that potential. There were a few moments of skill and flashes of brilliance, but they were quickly absorbed and lost in a difficult and arduous season. When the chips were down, the big fish was nowhere to be seen. Are we losing a talented individual? Yes. Are we losing an integral cog from a well-oiled machine? No. We lost Scott Neilson and Aswad Thomas and became a better squad because of it.
Jolley talked to Radio Humberside's Sportstalk last night to discuss a few things. As good as it was to hear Jolley discuss the latest goings-on at Blundell Park, it didn't really bring us anything new – but his delivery and professionalism in handling the media is so consummate, it makes you feel incredibly reassured about everything.
The manager is naturally guarded about revealing too much of what's going on in terms of signing new players for fear of jeopardising the deals, but he's happy to have signed Max Wright and Harry Clifton to the club for the foreseeable future – and he thinks this is a good chance for Louis Robles to impress. Dembele and his agent can go fuck themselves, but he didn't say that.
Earlier today we retweeted a Grimsby goal uploaded by the brilliant @onthisGTFCday account. It was the second goal in Town's 2-0 FA Cup first round replay against Chesterfield at Saltergate in 1997, when Groves drilled home a volley on the counter. I have the highlights tape of that season, so I've seen it a few times, yet only now does it seem a truly great goal. I don't think I appreciated the level of skill, or the technical brilliance from Groves to caress a ball that was slightly behind him at an awkward height into the far corner of the net, at the time. It's a truly great goal that has never really been spoken about.
It got me thinking… which other spectacular goals have either been underappreciated or just plain forgotten? I'm also thinking of John Oster's consolation at Wolves towards the end of the 1996–97 season, when he lifted the ball over the keeper from a relatively wide angle. Brilliant execution, and a brilliant goal, lost in a midweek game from a poor season.
Any other candidates? Take it away, GTFC fans.