Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 16 February 2005
16 February 2005
The Diary always used to be tickled by an advert placed at Doncaster station by some local development organisation, which said: "Can they make Doncaster what they made Carlisle?" It's not there any more, so presumably they have either made Doncaster what they made Carlisle or decided the answer was no and given up. Neither of which answers the question begged: "Er, what did they make Carlisle, exactly?" And all of which bears only the slightest relevance to the fact that Town reserves are hosting Doncaster this afternoon and are, according to the club's official website, "hoping" to include trial forward Richard Pacquette in the line-up, but you never know - they might surprise us all and actually play him.
Maybe it wasn't by some local development organisation at all; maybe it was specifically to do with racecourses, because they have them at Doncaster and Carlisle, don't they? That would make more sense. It really doesn't matter now, anyway.
Prawn cocktail? Pardon me while I snigger loudly as Lincolnshire continues to languish 30 years behind the rest of the civilised world.
And that's about it as far as the Mariners go, which isn't very far at all, but the Diary is equally amused and unsurprised to note today that part-time Hull City manager Peter Taylor, presumably because it's Wednesday, is trying to sign two more forwards. Well, you can't seriously expect him to sustain a proper challenge for promotion with just the 34 strikers on the books, can you? And speaking of such challenges, one can only wonder whether the other teams around the top of the fourth division will be up to taking advantage of the wheels falling off Brian Laws' bandwagon. Scunthorpe's defeat by Wycombe last night leaves them with only two unconvincing wins in their last ten league games and ten points from a possible 30, yet in this weirdly static division they retain second place despite even worse recent form than Town's.
Rich Mills has emailed again in response to my assertion yesterday that the Football Manager 2005 version of Andy Parkinson is alarmingly true to his real-life counterpart. "Does he jump in vain for every ball that Justin Whittle punts over his head to the opposing full-backs?" asks Rich cruelly. More his uncanny ability to squander possession in the final third by running into defenders, but the effect is much the same. Incidentally, it's early February in my first season and after a shaky start my Mariners side has found some form and ascended to ninth place. Thomas Pinault is my playmaker in a 3-1-3-3 system, given creative freedom in the centre of the park, and the statistics show him to be the best player in the fourth division by some margin. Brian Laws and Keith Alexander have both tried the mind games and been soundly beaten by the Diary's black and white army. Life is sweet in my CPU, and I don't want to come back out.