Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 13 July 2005
13 July 2005
More today on GTFC's backfiring public relations exercise surrounding their decision to switch three of next season's home games to Friday nights. First up, there've been some interesting developments since yesterday's Diary stated that a number of Town fans had recently emailed the club to protest at Friday night football. These supporters used the email address customerservice@gtfc.co.uk, which continues to appear online as part of the club's Customer Charter, where fans are invited to use it to convey any "legitimate concern or constructive comment". It has emerged since yesterday, however, that this address has actually been "defunct" for some time, and therefore that the legitimate concerns and constructive comments of these "customers" are apparently floating somewhere in cyberspace (the mails weren't bounced back), together with whatever other emails may have been sent by fans who have referred in good faith to the Customer Charter in the time since GTFC closed down that address. Just to make that clear, then, it's official: at Grimsby Town Football Club, customerservice is defunct.
Secondly, Tony Rogers has emailed the Diary to take issue with yesterday's claim by the club that staging last season's home game against Oxford on a Friday night "also proved to be a winner with Mariners' fans" as "almost 5,000 turned out". "The actual attendance against Oxford was 4,777," says Tony, "while Town's average home attendance for last season as a whole was 4,943. Think about that. The club is actually expecting us to believe that a below-average attendance was some kind of marketing triumph. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting a bit sick of paying people to treat me like an idiot."
A clutch of new trialists are set to take the field in Town's friendly at Bridlington tonight, and while everyone watches the skies to see whether Mr Russell Slade can sign an attacking midfielder half as good as Thomas Pinault, the Town boss could be set to strengthen the backline on the sly as well. Two middlemen who could be strutting their stuff are Boston's Sheffield-born Lee Thompson - he used to play for Sheffield United - and Huddersfield's Lee Fowler, and they could be joined by former Rushden and Tranmere forward Alex Hay. But joining them is Karl Colley, a 21-year-old Sheffield-born defender who notched four league goals for Barrow in the Conference North last season. Colley began his career with Newcastle before leaving in 2002 for spells with Halifax, Kettering, Hucknall Town, Bradford Park Avenue and, ooh, surprise, Sheffield United.
As new players come in let us spare a thought for those who are departed. No, not dead, although Graham Hockless' full-time career looks more than a little moribund now that the troublesome winger has signed for North Ferriby United, presumably having spurned offers from Melbourne Victory and Hull City to stay within commuting distance of his hairdresser. It's good news for the player's legions of adoring groupies in the Pontoon, then, who face only a short trip over the Humber to follow their idol next season, but bad news for Graham's agent, who will be wondering exactly how many cigars can be bought for 10 per cent of a Northern League signing-on fee.