Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 20 October 2008

20 October 2008

Under normal circumstances two points from a possible six, with no goals scored in almost 180 minutes of football - not to mention club record spells of no league wins in seven months and a fifth consecutive season in the fourth division - would be cause for concern, not least to the preternaturally pessimistic folk of northern Lincolnshire. These days it's smiles all the way, though, as Grimsby Town fans rejoice at their glass being half full for the first time in their miserable lives. New manager Mike Newell, far from having dropped four points in his first two games in charge, has stopped the rot with a draw that was nearly a win against unbeaten league leaders Wycombe and now a first clean sheet since the far-off days of August, far away at Exeter, who had won three in a row before the Mariners' hard-won goalless draw at St James Park on Saturday. "You have to start by being hard to beat and we were certainly hard to beat," glowered a satisfied Mike Newell afterwards. Young right-back Grant Normington has apparently turned into a midfielder and made his senior debut as a late sub, while Tom 'Let Newey Take It' Newey was lucky to escape with only a yellow for the same no-contact aggressive head-waving offence that got Mark Lever sent off at home to Barnsley on 28 January 1997.

Diary reader Clav Divs is bemused by Town's attempts to 'improve' the atmosphere at Blundell Park by recycling a failed idea. "Looking for someone to bang a drum?" writes Clav in an email. "What's all that about? What's wrong with standing up at the back of the Pontoon kicking the back wall in perfect syncopated rhythm whilst singing four-part harmony to 'There's only one [Insert current striker here]'?  Mind you, we always had a problem with Matt Tees - not enough syllables, you know." These days, of course, the 'Blue Moon' tune can readily accommodate bisyllabic forwards. I said bi-syllabic, Straight Peter Bore!