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Diary - Monday 18 December 2006

18 December 2006

It was the result everyone feared but nobody was terribly surprised by. But you're probably bored of hearing about the Government pulling the plug on the Serious Fraud Office investigation into BAE Systems' supply of deadly aerial weaponry to the human rights-flouting regime in charge of Saudi Arabia, so let's look at the aftermath of Town's defeat at Lincoln on Saturday afternoon. As we know, the Mariners' inadequate numbers left Alan Buckley approaching the game with just one available central defender, and it was the 12/1 shot, Gary Jones, who filled in at the back for the suspended Nick Fenton but was sent off midway through the second half for elbowing Lincoln's Nat Brown. Jones was, of course, freed to appear in last season's play-off final following a successful appeal against his dismissal against the same opponents in the semi - and maintains his innocence this time in a Grimsby Telegraph interview today - but GTFC have declined to follow the precedent and will not contest the decision. Just when he was flourishing under Buckley, then, the player will be suspended for four matches, given that Saturday was only his sixth game since his last red card, and will not be available again until Town take on Chester on 6 January. I told you we should have played Harkins. What? Jones had moved back up front by the time he was sent off? Oh.

You will recall, no doubt, from last Tuesday's Diary that Town's reserve game against York was, according to the club's official website, switched to Blundell Park because of a waterlogged pitch at Bootham Crescent, then postponed because of a waterlogged pitch at Blundell Park but, in a curious paradox combining elements of both philosophy and quantum mechanics, somehow still going ahead at the same time. Well, it didn't still go ahead, which has left the suddenly successful second string trawling the public parks of Grimsby for some big kids who are up for a bit of three-and-you're-in - or so it was until the intervention of Lord Buckley, who has organised them a kickabout at Brigg Town instead. The match could feature several first-teamers or ex-first-teamers including Isaiah Rankin, Peter Bore, Danny Boshell and Luton's Michael Reddy, and takes place at the Zebras' Hawthorns ground tonight, kicking off at half past seven. If you do fancy popping along, try to remember that GTFC aren't the team in black and white striped shirts, black shorts and red socks.

Elsewhere on Town's OS, a promotional item reminds us that the club is doing the kid-for-no-quid thing in an attempt to shore up the attendance for this Friday's visit of Torquay to Blundell Park. While the Diary loyally applauds any and all attempts to brainwash our children into supporting the Mariners, it is to be hoped that the impressionable youth of North East Lincolnshire are not looking to grasp the use of the apostrophe from the associated photograph used on the front page of the site, in which the players are holding up a banner that reads "BUCKLEYS BACK - FOOTBALLS COMING HOME". "It's another of Town's great Special Offer's!" the OS would probably add, if I could be bothered to read the piece.

"Nothing to do with football but something I thought you intellectual types at CA might take some interest (and pride) in," writes Chris Parrott in an email to the Diary. "Whilst it didn't gain enough votes to beat the other 'underrated' buildings in the BBC's poll, the Dock Tower is appreciated by top architecture critic Jonathan Glancy. It just shows that democracy isn't always the answer." Indeed, Chris - democracy and architecture do not mix. And there I was hoping we could get through a week without thinking about the Fentydome.