Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 13 August 2003

13 August 2003

Nine people have been charged by South Yorkshire police after Grimsby's cretin contingent last night let its testosterone go to its little head and decided to prove its red-veined manhood by shouting nasty things at people from somewhere else. Six Town 'fans' and three Rovers supporters have been bailed to appear before Doncaster magistrates on Friday to answer charges of public order offences following the Mariners' 3-2 League Cup defeat in the town last night. The Diary, meanwhile, invites those in the away end who joined in the usual two-song medley of tedious anti-Yorkshire material to consider the effect on the Hull-based referee.

For it is the main match official, Carl Boyeson, rather than the Mariners' defence, who is being blamed for the result by Town fans - not to mention journalists - who saw the game. Marcel Cas was one of about 165 players to receive red cards in last night's fixture programme, for an alleged shirt-tug that the referee presumably deemed to have "denied a clear goalscoring opportunity", despite the earlier clattering of Michael Boulding as he latched onto a rebound from Iain Anderson warranting not so much as a yellow. Less debatable is the earlier dismissal of Des Hamilton, who retaliated to a multiple studs-up assault with a headlock that would have done Giant Haystacks proud. Save it for the Pier, Des.

All of which meant, anyway, that the two-goal lead Town held with 15 minutes remaining, following a Stuart Campbell goal and Iain Anderson penalty, availed nothing as Gregg Blundell unironically snatched Rovers' winner in the fourth minute of injury time (the linesman having missed an offside, according to some observers). "If I generally go to watch a football game, I go to watch two sets of eleven players play football," reflects Paul Groves today, quoted by BBC Humber. "That's really all I've got to say about some of the incidents that went off," adds the GTFC player-boss, adding weight to the case made by leading anthropologists that two new classes of subspecies must be created to reflect the fundamental biological and psychological split between him and Neil Warnock.