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Diary - Tuesday 17 May 2005

17 May 2005

I don't know whether Russell Slade taught maths in his previous job, but he certainly seems to have a thing for percentages. Hence Thomas Pinault, the best passer of a football to turn out for the Mariners since the golden days of Wayne Burnett, looks set to be jettisoned after just one season at Blundell Park: the greatest possible disincentive to buy a new season ticket, less than a week before the club announces a price rise. "We saw both sides of Thomas this season - good and bad," Positive John has told the Grimsby Telegraph, because there's no way you could say that about any other player in the squad, is there.

So thumbs down to Rabid Russ for taking the chocolate chips out of our cookie, further thumbs down to Town's official website for running the story in "Pinault is rumoured to be on his way out" form as if it were some kind of unofficial network site run by fans, and thumbs up to Thomas for giving occasional respite to Grimsby supporters over a season that, while better than the previous one, comprised an unacceptable proportion of mostly unwatchable long-ball football. Oh for the days when Town narrowly lost matches after playing lots of pretty passing football, rather than narrowly losing matches after twatting the ball 20 feet in the air for an hour and a half.

It looks like Jason Crowe is leaving too, but we all knew he would, didn't we.

Chairman Fenty's chumming-up session with the Telegraph has also embraced the subject of new signings, to the extent that we now know talks with two new players are quite advanced. "Fingers crossed, by the weekend, we may have some news on that front," grins John, adding: "You need a couple of new faces to freshen things up and that's what we are aiming for." The need to freshen things up is a fairly good reason for a couple of new faces, admittedly, but most supporters would tend to cite the presence of just seven contracted players as an even better one.

Michael Boulding, of course, is not a new face but an old one, so it won't be him who's freshening up the Mariners' stale-smelling football wardrobe despite the former Barnsley tennis ace being released after 15 months in South Yorkshire. The fleet-footed forward began life at Oakwell slowly but found the net again a few times in 2005 only to be sent out on a non-scoring loan at Cardiff with Lennie Lawrence - the man who brought him to Grimsby and played him out of position on the left wing. The Diary - much like most readers thereof, I would venture - does not expect either Boulding or GTFC to express interest in a third collaboration.

Another old face, but a welcome one in these quarters, is that of Town's record-breaking, new contract-signing right-sided defensive maestro, and it is on this subject that John Pakey has emailed the Diary. "I think the only way to celebrate the great news of the world's best-ever right-back, Sir John McDermott, king of Cleethorpes, signing for Grimsby Town for another year would be to put together a T-shirt?" he writes. Strange that you should ask this, John, as I believe CA's leisurewear team have been considering precisely such a garment. The consensus, however, was that it would be best produced as a celebration of the great man's career when he stops playing, so you'll have to go bare-chested for at least another season, I'm afraid.

But this is not all from Mr Pakey on the subject. "And while that knighthood is still pending," he adds, "my family has done its best to honour the pride of the Pontoon in the best way we can, by naming the new dog after him. Macca will be brought back to the homestead next week. He's a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever. Here is something for you guys to maybe fill out some paras with. How many other fans have gone as far as naming loved ones - be they four-legged, furry, scaley or human - after their favourite Mariners players?" Again, John, it's funny you should say that, but the Diary would be delighted to hear from readers who have preceded you in this respect. If your cat is named after a former Town keeper, or anything remotely comparable, email diary@codalmighty.com.