Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 27 October 2004

27 October 2004

Pop music is better than football and John Peel did change the world, actually.

Are you watching in despair as Darren Mansaram keeps banging the goals in for Halifax while Ashley Sestanovich's shooting threatens to inflict serious structural damage on crumbling fourth division stands up and down the nation? Well, don't fling yourself from the Dock Tower just yet, as the return of Dazmaz to the Mariners' first XI may not be quite the stuff of unlikely fantasy. Mr Russell Slade doesn't want him cup-tied, y'see, and has denied the 'Fax permission to field the unfairly maligned young striker in their forthcoming FA Cup qualifying tie against Leek Town this Saturday - raising the prospect of the Town manager recalling Flash from his loan in West Yorkshire if the current GTFC frontline continues to strike with all the efficiency of a soggy Swan Vesta in a hurricane. "We fully expected that Grimsby would not want him to play in the FA Cup," Shaymen boss Chris Wilder has told the Halifax Courier. "They only have a small squad and they are only one division above us." Slade is understood to have drawn the line at bringing back Jake Sagare, however.

Today's Grimsby Telegraph has a go at stoking up a bit of a Wenger/Fergie-type spat between Mr Russ and his Chester City counterpart Ian Rush after the latter went to his local paper to attempt a defence of the graceless thugs he laughably calls a football team. Following last Saturday's slugfest at the Deva, Slade - along with 3,000 spectators - singled out the home side's Cortez Belle as a particularly violent young man, which entirely reasonable observation seems to have lashed Rush into a lather of Scouse fury. "His comments are totally out of order," responded the Chuckle Brother-imitating CCFC boss, in turn provoking further outbursts from Slade and Belle himself. "Cortez Belle should clearly have been sent off midway through the first half," added a spokesperson for the Undiscovered Peruvian Tribes supporters' trust.

Dunno about you, but the Diary really fancies some soup now. Before I stick the kettle on, though, we will briefly revisit Griffin Park, one of north-west London's top rugby union venues and occasional home to Brentford FC, where two of the Mariners' 2003-04 antiheroes are now plying their trade. To be fair to the lads Isaiah Rankin and Jamie Lawrence though, Trevor, their standards were somewhat higher than most of the dross that passed through Blundell Park last season on the way to oblivion, and so it's not such a bad thing that ageing midfielder Lawrence has been offered a new contract with the Bees until the end of December.

Oh, and that news story on the radio yesterday morning: apparently it reported that Grimbarians do less shagging than any other people in the country, and Liverpudlians the most. Ian Rush can go and fuck himself, though.