Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 16 October 2006

16 October 2006

After seeing two magpies on Saturday morning your Emergency Diary fancied his luck. Two lines on the Lottery! Ten quid on Hull to win the rugby league grand final! Town will stroll to victory against Swindon! And I will inevitably coin it in on the club's Gold Bond! Yes! Luck be a lady tonight!

Come late Saturday evening and my Lotto ticket and betting slip are screwed up as a day of total disappointment comes to an end. Town popped the bitter pill of defeat, losing as they did three-nil at Swindon. Swindon boss Dennis Wise reckons his lot "controlled the game from the off and looked quite comfortable". Graham Rodgerers, in an interview with Mariners World, felt the result was not representative of the action, "a game of them taking their chances [while] we did not". Grez conceded "we didn't create too much in front of goal" while the players "looked confused at times". Excuse of the game has to be blaming the "ball-boying" for one of the goals. All of which has the gaffer's progress meter taking a downward turn: "In recent games we have taken three steps forward but this result is definitely one step backwards". Step? More like a tumble to me.

Sir Macca agrees with his boss that progress is being made by the team, and knows why the result wasn't as bad as it could have been. "A month or so ago WHEN I WASN'T IN THE TEAM we might have come here and got beat by four or five," reveals the Lord's representative on Earth before declaring "I know we have been beaten by three but I think the scoreline flatters them." No word, however, on whether Swindon defender Adrian Williams's 12 minutes in goal bettered Desmond Hamilton's famous stint.

Carl Boyeson, a man who you may remember has the distinct honour of sending off two Town players in two separate games he has officiated (Darlington in 2005, Doncaster in 2003), was due to be the fourth official at the recent Hereford game. But "following representations from Grimsby Town" about Boyeson's Hull links, the referee was allocated another game. It's time the supporters and officials of GTFC got together and rethought this ill-feeling. Any man who dismisses Tony Crane deserves the freedom of North East Lincolnshire.

And, finally, I haven't won the club's Gold Bond, yet again. Curses.