Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 5 January 2004

5 January 2004

Good day to you all. Today's diary is delivered to you from Headingley as your regular diarist has been taken down with a sudden bout of work. My thoughts are with the Diary at this difficult time at the hands of his pay masters. And my thoughts are also with the many of you rejoining the rat race after what I hope was a joyous holiday period. Bit of a shitter being back at work, eh?...

...which is probably what the Town squad would be thinking at this very moment if they actually gave a toss after their flaccid capitulation at the hands of a feeble Wycombe team on Saturday. "That performance is not acceptable," Paul Groves told a BBC reporter, more-than-likely in that prevalent softly-spoken manner of his. "We need to address it. If it means coming in every day then so be it. We need to make sure that we are up for the game and ready for the fight." Every day? My God, footballers will be working seven hours a day next as well. Anyhow, Dr Groves is hoping his course of graft will show signs of recovery: "We are now going to be looking for a reaction from the players." Let's hope they're not allergic to your medicine, Paul.

In the old media world of the printed press, today's Grimsby Telegraph has Grovesie admitting his job is on the line due to recent results and agrees with the fans' signs of frustration on Saturday. "I would be disgruntled as much as they were. They are the people you feel sorry for. They have watched you, supported you, they come week-in, week-out trying to get behind you and there wasn't anything to get behind." You can just sense the "if I did a day's work like that I'd have been sacked" letters being posted to the Telegraph as you read it.

Elsewhere in the paper, Peter Furneaux believes that Groves' position is safe and the board will look to assist their manager: "We need to establish if there are problems that we can assist with from a board point of view. We're doing all we can to make the players comfortable - but we need to check if there are any underlying factors which we're not aware of that are contributing to the current form." Maybe the players being a little too comfortable, Pete?

If the 4-1 scoreline wasn't enough, the diddy, whispering chairman reveals that Tony Adams envies the squad Town have got at their disposal. Which, if you think about it for a second, is probably what a lot of clubs in the division feel towards us at the moment.

And so we conclude today's post mortem. For all of you out there who despaired at the result, be thankful you didn't spend your Chrimbo and New Year holiday in France with your outlaws who all support Wycombe and you had to endure all manner of jibes as your ferry pulled into Blighty's own port of Dover at 4:50 on Saturday. I did. And it didn't abate during my overnight stay in Buckinghamshire either. Until tomorrow...