Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 25 November 2006

25 November 2006

I know it's going to take Alan Buckley time to reverse the half-decade of mismanagement and decay since he was sacked by the Mariners in 2000, but the quality of football on display at Blundell Park this afternoon - not least from the debutant loanees signed by the new manager on Thursday - makes it hard to believe that the good times are more than a neat passing triangle away. Town take the lead against Accrington on 12 minutes when a sumptuous move is finished by Martin Paterson, whose pace, skill and movement all afternoon produce one of the most exciting GTFC debuts in many a long year. Gary Jones lashes in a second ten minutes after the break, and the Mariners survive a spell of Stanley pressure to send an improved crowd home as happy as a Grimbarian ever gets (answers on an email postcard as to why hundreds left ten minutes from the end). Despite a second league clean sheet of the season, it's far from perfect when Buckley's side don't have the ball; but when they do, by heck, it's a bit good.