Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 6 August 2005

6 August 2005

If there was one thing that let down the Mariners last season, it was the loss of creativity incurred by the failure to select of Thomas Pinault for much of the campaign's latter half. If there were two things that let down the Mariners last season, they were the aforesaid lack of creativity and the reliance on high balls to Andy Parkinson against opponents who looked scarcely capable of defending the through pass. And if there were three things that let down the Mariners last season, they were the aforesaid lack of creativity and reliance on high balls and too many home draws against decidedly ordinary opposition.

And so for all the new players in Russell Slade's 2005-06 line-up, for all the excitement about Gary Croft in particular, for all of Paul Bolland's impressive debut in central midfield and the least unhelpfully negative home crowd for some time, Town mustering just two shots on target in their 1-1 draw at home to Oxford today - and the manager telling Radio Humberside that it "showed how difficult we are going to be to beat this season" - only gave resonance to the old proverb that the more things change, the more they remain the same.