Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 16 February 2006

16 February 2006

Your guest diarist is just pondering. Recently I've been described as a 'bad dad'. My methods, although not unsound, are 'not right' and 'not what we do with our child', and have received frowns from those parents. And yet my daughter is better behaved than many of her mates, out-going, growing and developing beyond what is 'expected' at her age, and above all she is extremely happy and loves her parents. If this wasn't the case, I'd be taking to heart some of the flak aimed at me.

After a couple of days away from my internet connection - the vein that feeds my Town hungry heart - I am left wondering if Russell Slade has a similar approach towards handling criticism over his handling of his developing Grimsby Town team. A quick wander through the various Town message boards finds fans deriding, almost deliriously in some cases, just about everything about Russ's methods. Interestingly, on Radio Five Live on Tuesday night, while Mansfield were doing Town over, Graham Taylor declared that "no fan would complain about their team's style of play if they were winning." It would appear that when applied to those highly vocal supporters of Grimsby Town this appraisal is a heinously erroneous and misplaced judgement. And yet with thirteen games to go Town still sit pretty in second, and three points above fourth-placed Northampton. Still what do I know, the model for unconventional parenting I am.

News elsewhere is, as you might have gathered by that preamble, pretty thin. There's confirmation that Gary Croft will miss the upcoming game against Chester after receiving his fifth yellow card.

An apology from Stevie Mildenhall for his howler at Field Mill graced yesterday's back page of the Grimmo Tellywag. Should one of Town's most impressively consistent players so far this season need to apologise? And before the whingers get all indignant, that's a gaff less than Mr A. Williams had committed by this point last season.

Thomas Pinault has been rediscovered in a question and answer piece on the OS, revealing the reason why Luton's Michael Reddy's is on a one-man mission to gain automatic promotion: so he can have a longer holiday. Chris Williams, the Stockport midfielder who was deployed as a forward during his short tenure with Town (and Russell Slade's presumable experimentations with Class A mind expanding drugs) last season, has joined Northwich Victoria on loan. Is Young Greg still with them? Are you still with me? Probably not. Time to fly. Bye.