Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 23 January 2006
23 January 2006
Russell Slade has reacted to Saturday's disappointing two-all draw at Torquay with... nothing very much at all, if we are to go by the club's official website. "Coming up shortly," it says. Let's drop back again later, then; after all, it's only two days after the match.
The results are in for the first phase of Ben Futcher's experiment to see how many yellow cards he can pick up in a season before getting suspended. After being booked last Tuesday the global media were saturated with reports that Town's latest six-foot-seven defender would miss the weekend trip to Torquay, but the card Futcher collected against Darlington was only his fourth yellow of the season, not his fifth (the confusion possibly arising from his sending-off while playing for Boston at Cheltenham in August: reds, yellows, live together in perfect harmony). Free to resume clattering all and sundry at Plainmoor, the player duly received a belated fifth booking but his suspension will kick in only for this weekend's game against Peterborough, rather than tomorrow's at Stockport, because of a rule dreamed up by some faceless suit at the FA whose only experience of a ball in his entire worthless bureaucratic life was the graduation dance when he got a 2:1 in accountancy from the University of Buckingham and had to leave early because somebody gave him snakebite instead of lemonade and he was sick on his shoes. Damn yeah.
Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala didn't play for the Democratic Republic of Congo in their 2-0 African World Cup win over Togo at the weekend; nor did he appear, at the weekend or at any other time, for Congo, Gamibia, Iceland, Sligo Rovers, Chicago Fire, Harlequins, London Broncos or Grimsby Buffaloes. Don't know why I mentioned it really. Another former Mariner who very much did play at the weekend, though, is Anthony Williams, the acrobatic goalkeeping superstar of Town's 2004-05 vintage, who was disgracefully allowed to leave the club on a free transfer last summer and sign for Carlisle, who inexplicably dropped him just weeks into the season and unfathomably shot up the league table just afterwards. Williams is now on loan, of course, at Bury, whose 3-1 defeat at Boston on Saturday included at least one uncharacteristic clanger from the normally consistent stopper, who has, surprisingly, conceded five goals in two games for the Shakers so far. Who'd have thought it?
And while we're at it with Town stars of the distant past, it's nice to see John Oster discovering that not everybody has so great an opinion of him as he has of himself, and equally pleasant to find Thomas Pinault keeping in touch. Given the alarming shades of crimson assumed by Mr Russell Slade's head in response to some of Pinault's performances last season, we can only hope the Mariners boss is too busy managing the team to come into contact with the club's official website. Ah yes - he is.
With that the Diary must bid you goodbye until tomorrow, as I am off to celebrate having drawn 11 in the Cod Almighty staff sweepstake on how many days would pass between Town signing Ben Futcher and the Grimsby Telegraph calling him and Rob Jones "twin towers". See ya!