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Diary - Tuesday 3 February 2009

3 February 2009

"Adrian can play in a couple of positions but we are looking for him to play up front," announced manager Newell to the Telewag after we got that old bluesman Mr Forbes on loan for the rest of the season. "We haven't got a great deal of strength in depth or experience in forward areas and we needed to bolster our ranks. He is an honest player who works his socks off. He is brave in the tackle and he has got a goal in him as well. He is a very strong player and he has got a bit of pace. He is good in the air and he will lead the line for you. He defends from the front and that takes a bit of pressure off the other striker. I had him at Luton and I played him up front and he got 14 goals, so he did well," said Newell in a journalistic approximation to the prose of Ernest Hemingway.

The Forbester himself welcomed the move, given that everything appeared to start going wonky for him when hefell out with the Swansea manager Kenny Jackett after being sold on by Luton. Which explains why he never got in the Millwall team, as Jackett signed him there in a bizarre means of revenge after taking over at the New Den. It is interesting to note, gentle reader, that Forbes performed best under Newell as a striker. Subsequent clubs played him wide and dropped him. "My preferred position is as a striker, where I can use my pace to get in behind defenders but I can also play right and left midfield" he said. Swansea fan Trev McCabe has this to say: "Only saw him play three or four times (the curse of being nowhere near Swansea these days) and was always impressed by his work rate - always chasing things down."

So another potentially good signing, reckons your Guest Diarist. Experienced but not old; neither injury-wracked and with a face full of honest character. A bloke who wants to play football and who gets on with the manager. A chance for him to escape into division four and kick some ass. Let's hope so.

Meanwhile eagle-eyed Mardy Diary (take a deep breath: he is going to blast us all again tomorrow, I think) has spotted that Donny signed Dean Shiels from Hibs yesterday. Does this mean Mr Elliott has slid even lower down the pecking order? I hope so.

Peter Till, meanwhile, has bankrupted a tanning salon down Grimsby Road by going on loan to Chesterfield for the rest of the season and presumably, one hopes, taking his wage bill with him. His contract expires at that point so I don't expect we will see him again, unless lining up for the opposition. Talent he has, application less so - a player who finds it easy to look threatening 40 yards out but rarely troubled the opposition enough where it really matters.

The superb new official site is canvassing views on the Mariners World commentary service. "We've had some really positive feedback about Compass FM's and Mariners World's improved match commentary," the article opens, killing off any possibility of objectivity. As a listener my five penn'orth is that the introduction of Bolland has brought some fresh air in to the fetid, sleepy commentary box, but I still maintain the main commentators are labouring under the illusion that we can see what is going on and don't really need telling what actually is happening.

So the week drags on and we have another empty Tuesday night due to Luton calling off the match because there was snow on the seats or summat. Still, Cain is back in Emmerdale next week. See yer Friday.