Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 16 January 2007

16 January 2007

Oh, there goes another one. After just five months as a Grimsby player Ricky Ravenhill is all set to do one to the Mariners' basement buddies and this Saturday's opponents Darlington, becoming one more in the anonymous dozens of players since the turn of the millennium who have signed some sort of deal to play for Town and then either been ushered promptly out of the door by the next panic managerial appointment or just skedaddled at the end of their short-term contract to earn more money somewhere less apathetic. Following a recent sequence of invisible non-performances culminating in his dire display against Chester a week ago Ravenhill clearly falls into the latter category, and following another poor showing by the team as a whole at Walsall last night we can safely assume that he will not be the last of the "dead wood" Lord Buckley says he needs to clear out. Either way, Town's website states with all the authoritativeness one would expect from the club's primary medium of official communication that the player is "thought to be set to sign" for the Quakers later today. One Blundell Park wit has already commented on Ravenhill's departure: "Apparently Town have inserted a clause in the agreement insisting that he DOES play on Saturday."

Mariners World subscribers might today enjoy an interview with Buckley filmed after last night's drearfest at the Bescot - not so much because it offers great cause for optimism as Town look to end their run of five straight defeats against Darlo at the weekend; more because it was recorded by the Walsall 'World' team and you can actually hear what the manager is saying.

New stadium, support of local MPs, "we cannot allow the Mariners to be left behind", blah blah, rhubarb rhubarb, whatever. That do you?

Martyn Wyburn has emailed the Diary in raptures of joy at Town's brilliantly wonky official travel guide to last night's match, which we looked at here yesterday. "The official site has surpassed itself," he enthuses. "I particularly liked (in the questions to Buckley): 'In insight was that the wrong move for you?' Also: 'And you was said to have been only 90 minutes away from Europe.' See, following Grimsby isn't all doom and gloom; we can always raise a smile from somewhere." That's it exactly, Martyn: as the Diary reflected last week, it's not like we're ever going to win anything, so we might as well train our minds to derive some sort of weird pleasure from our own crippling inadequacies. It worked for the Diary as a teenage Smiths fan, anyway.

Finally today, the redoubtable Mr Tony Butcher, Cod Almighty's match reporter and professional curmudgeon, would like the Diary to pass on his thanks to Steve Ellison for giving him a lift in to Birmingham after last night's match, "saving a one-hour wait at bleak 'orrid Bescot station". So I am doing. Thanks, Steve. And CA's midlands correspondent has asked me to add that "it's about a 20-minute walk along the Walsall ring road from Bescot to catch a number 51 bus into the so-called second city", should any readers find themselves in a similar predicament at any point in the future. That was a public information film. Look after your purse, before someone else does.