Cod Almighty | Diary

VAR, what is it good for

18 June 2018

Irregular Diary writes: I've spent my weekend watching the World Cup – flicking from one set of drab 'experts' to another. It is most amusing that the referee expert for one of the channels is Mark Clattenburg, who wouldn't know a red card if a tackle resulted in a broken leg right in front of him.

Overall so far it has been alright, it's passed the time, but it isn't Grimsby Town and it's not England. In all honesty, when I was given this date to write a diary, I thought I'd be raging about VAR spoiling the game, but even that's been OK. Well, there was the penalty decision in the France v Australia game, but that wasn't England, so I'm not too bothered. Just like Slaven Bilic.

For plenty of us tonight is when the World Cup really begins, so let's hope we don't suffer the same fate as Brazil, Germany and Argentina by not picking up maximum points. A win keeps the interest up until at least the weekend.

Talking of Germany and the other favourites, they've all looked pretty average, haven't they? They've come up against teams that want to have a go at them at some point and ultimately, it's been their undoing. Even when looking at who's impressed, Portugal drew in the end and Peru lost – so it paves the way for England to storm it… right?

For those who don't want to stay home to watch England's opening game against Tunisia this evening, the Mariners Trust bar is open at the home of football – Blundell Park. Table service and spot prizes are on offer, so might be worth popping along.

In other Blundell Park news, we've signed Elliott Whitehouse from Lincoln City, who according to their fans is a bang average play-off player at best and they aren't bovvered that he's gone. All that before reeling off their various recent successes, which is nice, but it's also interesting to see that they'd be well impressed with replacing said player with another player who 'failed' in the play-offs. All a little odd really, and when all's said and done we'll still be in the same division next season. So, laters!

UTM