Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 4 September 2004

4 September 2004

Eleven days ago it was a glorious free-flowing football festival, which dumped high-flying Wigan out of the League Cup and well nigh reduced the Diary to tears of pure joy. One week before today an equally satisfying performance, as gritty as it was skilful, saw off Mansfield with their curious mix of decent football and hardcore violence. Then it was a limp second-half surrender at Wycombe, and tonight Russell Slade's Mariners will need to look themselves very sternly in the face after a shocker of a showing hands a poor Rochdale side all three points at Blundell Park this afternoon. Most worrying of all is that the attitude of certain players seems more the sort of indifferent defeatism supporters thought they'd seen the last of when Nicky Law was given an anti-social behaviour order banning him from entering North East Lincolnshire.

Tranmere's Paul Robinson, who impressed on trial for Town reserves in midweek, has signed on loan but remained on the bench this afternoon (I am switching to the past tense in a probably doomed attempt to put today's events out of my mind), while 19-year-old Stockport striker Chris Williams has done likewise and replaced The Ineffective Ashley Sestanovich during the second half against Rochdale, but lacked composure in front of goal and would appear to offer the squad considerably less than Graham Hockless - is he fit again or what? - or for that matter Darren Mansaram. Now holed up at home with a fresh supply of Booze, your Diary is unable and unwilling to tell you where this leaves the Mariners in the fourth division league table, and I haven't even looked at the other results. It may soon be necessary for a curry to be delivered to my door; a curry so hot that it will erase my memory of all events between three and five o'clock pm today.

Extra-special Diary hugs of commiseration go to Guest Diary - the drivel served up by Town against Dale has coincided with his birthday, and before the match he was observed to be considerably more chipper than for some time - and to Ant Wood, who at least was spared the trauma of today's match but only by virtue of his car exploding on Humber Street. Gah!