Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 4 January 2005

4 January 2005

Mindful that Russell Slade included a certain French midfielder in the side that beat Cambridge 3-0 yesterday only because of injuries to Michael Reddy and Ashley Sestanovich, and that the GTFC manager then ducked out of a post-match Radio Humberside interview after said French midfielder opened the scoring and created the third goal, the Diary has no wish today to further embarrass our esteemed leader by mentioning Thomas Pinault any more than is strictly necessary.

As we have already seen, Slade was in no mood to face questioning about Thomas Pinault's decisive contribution to yesterday's match and sent Graham Rodger to face the gathered hordes of John Tondeur after the game. And you would think knowing the name of the assistant manager at one of the three senior clubs it covers would be a fairly basic requirement for BBC Humber, wouldn't you? You'd be disappointed, though, as the website of the Hull-based news source today carries a short summary of Radio Humberside's post-match interviews featuring a mysterious figure referred to only as Graham Rodgers. To be fair, Gary, this was precisely the moniker affixed to GTFC's number two by messageboard nesbits as recently as 2003, but I bet Thomas Pinault would have spelt it correctly.

The Diary, I readily admit, has felt no compunction about heaping criticism on some of the Mariners' performances of late. If being out-passed in October by an Ian Atkins team were not bad enough, it was not the happiest feeling possible, the following month, to watch Town players defending a 2-1 lead, at home, against the worst team in the league, by trying and failing to run down the clock by keeping the ball in the corner of the pitch. But let's see some credit where it's due: the second and third goals on Monday were marvellous events to behold, and the big hoof tactics of recent months were notable by their absence. Well, relative absence. How sad, then, that yesterday's Blundell Park crowd is described by Cambridge's official website as giving "very little actual support for their side". And this with Thomas Pinault on the pitch.

Rumours that GTFC are to trim the squad by removing fringe players have come to fruition with the release of young reserve team midfielder Ashley Hildred, who never really looked capable of developing into a player of the quality of Thomas Pinault. Hildred was given a six-month contract when his old deal expired last summer, and went out on loan to Northwich Victoria earlier this season but after failing to impress at the Drill Field slipped even further down the BP midfield pecking order than Thomas Pinault.

"Rambo was excellent at Lincoln," writes Sibbo in an email to the Diary. "By far Town's best player and Rob Jones had a good game. Credit where credit's due." My thoughts exactly, Sib, so tell it to those bastards who won't give the Diary a Visa card. What were your thoughts on the team selection at Sincil Bank, Sibbo? "We were something like 86 mins late in seeing our Thomas take the field." I rather thought that might be the case. "Oh and happy new year to all at Cod Almighty. Let's hope Town get a winning run together very soon in 2005." Thank you very much, and the same to you. I think it's fairly clear what Russ needs to do to to make our hope into reality, isn't it?

Well, that's all for today. I have to drive my nephew Thomas to his friend's birthday party, so let's hope my little Pinault 5 stays on the road in all this windy weather, and Tom can enjoy a game of Pinault the tail on the donkey before he and his friends head out for some ten-Pinault bowling.