Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 25 February 2004

25 February 2004

An early diary today, as I can't wait to tell you how 'good' Town were last night as they confounded expectations with a winner three minutes into injury time. The good news is that Town's goals were really good ones. A spectacular mixture actually. For the first Armstrong slung a delightful crossfield ball; Jevons' first touch was sublime, and his finish was as cool as you like. The second was a penalty. Rankin was 'dragged back', so dived forward between two defenders. The ref bought it, hook, line and sinker. Of course, Rankin learnt that trick at Barnsley. A proper Grimsby player would never stoop so low. Jevons took a good penalty, low in to the corner. And then, finally (and I mean finally) the space cadet himself launched himself upwards to steer a header into the top corner, from a delightful Barnard free kick. And all three at the Pontoon end. What a lovely bonus for your failing-sighted guest diarist.

The bad news is that Town were abso-bloody-lutely awful. Too awful for me to tell you, so I'll leave it to Tony Butcher, whose match report will be published here later in the day. Read it, and weep.

So, we have 36 points with 14 games left. Applying the time-honoured formula results in us needing to average about a point a game from hereon. One thing last night's game definitely shows is that this year's crop of Division Two sides are almost universally crap. Luton were rubbish, like all the rest of the play-off challenging sides I've seen. Only Bristol City really stand out. And why? Because Wilson has got them disciplined and organised. Town are neither disciplined nor organised.

Davison played the whole of the second half with a very debilitating leg injury, which contributed directly to Luton's second goal. Our sub goalie was Anderson, who had gone off injured earlier in the first half. Our other sub goalkeeper is Hamilton, who was a mysterious omission from the sixteen. After the match Rodger babbled and gurgled about the result, likening his team to soldiers going over the top or something. Maybe he was alluding to a Blackadder episode. Tony Robinson has, sadly not applied for the managership vacancy. Maybe we should email him and ask for a cunning plan. Rodger also has some convincing to do 'upstairs' if he is to get permission to sign a loan keeper to cover the four to six weeks he claims it will take Aidan to recover. He hinted that he'd been told to sort it out within his existing squad resources. I vote for Hamilton, who was signed for his comedy value, so needs to earn his corn somehow now that he is out of favour in midfield.

Buckets were shyly shaken at the match last night, but the club itself seems to be promoting only the flag appeal (tannoy, scoreboard, and official website). The girls raised £288 out of the £500 they need, apparently. But there is no sign at all that the GTST Grab-a-Goalie campaign has taken off. So it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Life is never boring as a Town fan, and that is reason number 153 why I support them. Until tomorrow then, gentle readers...