Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 28 September 2007
28 September 2007
Town will be missing James Hunt tomorrow at home to Hereford, as the injury he sustained in that almost comical collision with Fenton last Saturday has left him with a very sore and bruised hamstring. The good news is that young Ryan Bennett trained with the team yesterday, and came through it OK. Lord Buckley, who passed on this information in his weekly pre-match interview with Mariners World, considered the latter fact a big plus. More concerning to him was the fact that Mr Bolland had limped out of training that morning with a sore shin. Alan considers Bolland's input 'vital' although your Guest Diarist has to say, for me, he had a poorish game last Saturday at Lincoln. But then you always notice players' failings more after they have made a defensive cock-up and missed chances at the other end, don't you? We will miss his energy and commitment if he doesn't play, that's for sure.
Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph, Lord Buckley admitted that he had been planning an unchanged team for the match tomorrow, and Hunt's absence resurrects the old dilemma about formation. Jamie Clarke could deputise for Hunt, having looked quietly authoritative when coming on against Lincoln and passing the ball nicely. Mulligan is another option in midfield with Bennett resuming duties at right-back. But then there is the temptation to go with two strikers in a 4-4-2 line-up. Town have two home games in quick succession, and after the away win at Lincoln talk has switched from 'bouncing back' to 'trying to put a little run together'. Let's hope we don't get beat and win at least one of them, eh?
Victorian Britain must have seemed a fairly scary place if you weren't loaded. To a modern-day slacker like me it seems so, anyway. But, though they might have worked you like a dog, not given you a proper vote, and disapproved of you pissing your pittance up the wall at the end of the week, they did have philanthropists. Rich folk who donated part of their fortune back to the poor sections of the community. A bit of cap-doffing was expected, maybe, but apart from that it was a genuine freebie when they built a school or a park. Unlike today, when retailers (for it is retailers who own and run this planet, gentle reader) expect you to shop furiously in order to collect vouchers which can be turned into basketball hoops or some such. They reckoned on the radio the other day that if you spend sixty-odd thousand quid in Tesco you get enough vouchers for a whole hoop, apparently. An imported hoop, naturally. Words fail you sometimes.
Speaking of rip-off deals I found some disgruntled Hereford fans lurking on the interweb yesterday. On discovering that your Guest Diarist is a Grimsby fan they gave me both barrels about the raw deal that away fans get at Blundell Park (having to pay 18 quid to sit in the Osmond stand). Why, they asked pointedly, do they have to pay more than home fans? They told me what I already knew - that most clubs seem to charge £15 or £16 to get in to watch fourth division football, citing Peterborough, Lincoln, Notts County and Bastard Franchise Scum as just a few examples. It is hard to defend Town's policy, and I know not whether this is an isolated gripe or not. But from past experience I notice if I have to pay more at an away game than I do at Town. And it rankles, definitely, it does. But then I shop at Lidl, not Tesco, and have heard that Ramsey bloke on the telly tell failing restaurateurs that putting the prices up will not save them from bankruptcy by lack of customers.
I was telling that young pop star Pete Green about all of this yesterday, and he mentioned that Town's customer charter says: "The Club does not charge admission prices to supporters of a visiting club, which are higher than those charged to our own supporters for comparable accommodation." Oh, of course - we are all supposed to produce our 'Mariner Discount Card' every time we buy a ticket, which gets us two quid off the standard admission fee. Disingenuous? I didn't tell the Bulls fans that bit because it would be like waving a red... I'll get me coat - see yer.