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Diary - Tuesday 13 December 2005

13 December 2005

What has Grimsby Town Football Club in common with a typical white onion? They both have very thin skins, and it has emerged that sensitive team manager Mr Russell Slade got himself a bit worked up at Grimsby Telegraph sports editor Geoff Ford after the Mariners lost at home to Bristol Rovers last Saturday. The Town boss is surely justified in bemoaning the local population's ongoing indifference towards the club (although the weekend's attendance was the second highest in the division that day) but lost his rag again when asked by Ford what seems a reasonable question about his side's persistently shaky home form: "Your comment there is typical of the negativity surrounding this football club and your paper," thundered Sort It. Granted, the Telegraph's account does not include the wording of Ford's question, and much of the criticism reeled off towards GTFC officials by 'supporters' is grossly unfair, but following the club's ill-advised public spats with both the local rag and BBC Radio Humberside in recent seasons it is disappointing to be reminded just how fragile are the egos at Blundell Park.

The Diary, as you may know, has recently drawn attention to the awful form of Town's reserve team, who have been languishing at the foot of the Division One East table with one point from a possible 24 this season. Until last night, that is, when the second string defied their fixture list to sneak up to Darlington two days early and come back home having doubled their points tally thanks to a draw secured by a John Lukic penalty save. Young defender Miles Chamberlain seems to have played despite being on loan at Eastwood Town, according to the account of the match on the Mariners' official website, which also neglects to mention the score; although in fairness to the OS, Darlington's site neglects to mention the match.

About a quarter of a century ago the Diary felt deeply privileged to shake the hand of a popular Grimsby Town player who was signing autographs at the school summer fayre, and if I decide to pop along to the Ottakar's in Freshney Place this Thursday evening then I could meet Tony Ford for a second time. The Mariners hero will, as you may well have surmised by now, be promoting his new biography The Tony Ford Story, by Keith Haynes and Phil Sumbler, and if you fancy getting your fishy mitts on a signed copy the event begins at 6pm.