Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 29 September 2006

29 September 2006

You've all seen that Guinness advert on the telly, surely. You know the one where the blokes stood in a bar with a pint are whipped back pronto to the dawn of time. And ending up looking like newts. For some reason your Guest Diarist's brain equated this scenario to Grimsby's woeful defeat on Tuesday night. A match which was actually quite enjoyable for the first forty four minutes or so. Then Peter Beagrie showed us his thing. Several times, and very slowly. In his own area, right in front of the Pontoon faithful. At his age it is a moot point whether that sort of behaviour is even legal. Even the blokes who used to have a kickabout with a pig's bladder in the middle ages knew that it wasn't a good idea at all to show off right near your own goal. The nearest thing we got to an apology after the resulting rightly awarded penalty was a grudgingly raised arm as he ambled back for the restart. He didn't look us in the eye and say sorry, and his sullen posturing as he was substituted later on just made things worse. And I haven't heard from him after the match, have you? He made himself look like a stupid old man. I know that Beagrie takes a decent corner; and that he might score from a free kick around the box. But we don't get enough set pieces; four corners and no shootable free kicks on Tuesday by my reckoning. On Tuesday the Town starting line up had no players under 25; six players over 30; and the average age of the team was 31. Three hundred and forty one years on this planet; over a hundred and fifty years footballing experience between them. Oh, hang on - that's just Beagrie. I'm sure he's regressing towards newtdom. But let's be clear - he is not a protected species.

On a much more comforting note, positive John Fenty has told us, via the gruesome Grimsby Telegraph, that: "We have to remain positive. Negativity coming over to the football team is not going to help matters." On the question of giving Mr Rodger the boot Mr Fenty lapsed into biz-speak: "It would be the wrong reaction to take assertive action now." As to whether Town should apply post neoclassical endogenous growth theory to solve the team's problems positive John apparently remained coy. On the performance against Hartlepool Mr Fenty is quoted as saying: "I felt we were arguably the better side against Hartlepool in the first half and then we had a penalty decision which I thought was unfortunate. That happens in football, you live or die by the decisions of the referee." So, I was wrong to think that Town were demotivated, deflated and demoralised after that moment of madness from Beagrie and that they more or less failed to show up for the second half which resulted in us going from bemoaning our luck not to be two up at half time to relief that we got away with a 4-1 thumping in the end. Take a deep breath now, GD.

Mr Rodger himself has also been talking to the Telegraph. Saying amongst other 'must bounce back' and 'we're playing well really' drivel that Isiaiaiah Rankin might recover for the Hereford game. Of the match tonight at Darlington Mr Rodger explains that he will be picking from the same squad. As regards the opponents: "In both games up there (Darlington) in the last two seasons, we felt we should have done better than a 1-0 defeat and a goalless draw. But they are decent and always make it tough for you. We expect a decent game but we need to grind out a result - like we did at Chester." Expect a five man midfield tonight then, gentle reader, for Mr Rodger will be desperate to get a point. The official site tells us though that Justin Whittle remains a slight doubt for tonight after picking up a knock and gloats in the fact that Joachim won't feature because of a hamstring strain.

Finally gentle reader, here is solace for you. Especially if you are a pedant like me. An article on the official site about the transfer window bestows upon it's readers a brilliant tutorial on how to lose your thread. The author tells us that: "For a club like Grimsby Town, there has been a four-fold effect of what the transfer window brings." OK then what are the four things? Well apparently the first is that other clubs are unwilling to let players go in case they can't replace them before the window closes (or they won't go to a club like Grimsby of course). Secondly (the article goes on to explain) if you are contemplating selling a player you might not let him go in case you can't replace him. Which you have to admit is kind of a mirror image of the first effect. As to effects three and four I leave it to you to scour the article to find them because I bloody couldn't. Answer on a postcard please. Let's hope we pick up a bit tonight. See yer.