Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 23 October 2007
23 October 2007
You've all been into the chemist to buy clap cream 'for a friend', right? Of course you have. So you all know who Alan Buckley is really concerned for in today's Grimsby Telegraph, where the Mariners boss can be found lamenting the lack of time given to football managers these days to get their teams sorted out. The 'friend' in this instance is John Schofield, recently sacked by struggling Lincoln despite his heroics in taking the Imps to another play-off defeat last season, and it is no surprise that Buckley also empathises with the recently dismissed Notts County manager Steve Thompson - especially with Lincoln languishing one place below Town in the fourth division league table and the Pies just one place above. He goes on to cite the success of Arsenal and Manchester United as proof that sticking with a manager is the right thing to do, but sure enough, Buckley soon comes clean about his agenda. "In 1988 we had a nightmare start up until Christmas, but the late Bill Carr and Peter Furneaux backed me to turn it around and we didn't do half bad after that," says the boss. "Again in 1997 it was the same and we improved. All managers want is a bit of time and the chance to bring stability to the club." Quite right too. Now where did I put that tube of acyclovir?
GTFC seem to be all smiles about a recent McMenemy's function starring celebrity refereeing failure Graham Poll, but Ben Gresswell won't be buying the photos. "Thank you Diary for prompting me to have a look at the Grimsby Town Multimedia website," he writes. "I can now confirm to all other Diary readers who have not yet taken a butchers that it is the biggest pile of shite I have seen since my neighbour's bull mastiff had the runs. Who in their right mind would want to pay a quid for a picture of Graham Poll? And as for the picture of Peter Bore... well, he's striking a pose like a very, very heterosexual catalogue model. Bear in mind that you are invited to 'Choose from thousands of picture (sic) spanning over 100 years of GRIMSBY TOWN'. Click on the 'past seasons' link and you are briskly take to an archive straining under the weight of two, yes TWO! pictures of Gary Cohen. I would like to ask Positive John how much this completely unnecessary website cost to build and how much is spent on the upkeep of it. I'm hoping the answer is the lower side of nothing. I'll try that link on the 'pretty shit actually' official site and let you know if I get a response." And indeed, Ben has emailed the club on precisely this subject for the forthcoming 'chairman's question time' thing; the Diary, in turn, will let you know if it comes to owt.
At least the SNOS is not alone among Grimsby-related websites in just ever so occasionally getting things wrong, as the Grimsby Telegraph site today offers the mouthwatering promise of "A free bag of chips for every reader - starts in your Telegraph tomorrow", only for the 'more information' page linked there to tell drooling readers precisely zip about the offer. Booo, sort it Lalors!
Lastly today, another Diary reader has emailed with some observations on a local media source, but Clav Divs has praise to apportion to an unlikely recipient. "Anyone lucky enough to listen to the commentary on Last Resort FM on Saturday? Apart from using a mobile phone - 'we have a few technical problems' - when the technical problem was probably knowing where to plug the charger in, I quite warmed to the commentator, who managed to capture the atmosphere of the occasion by sounding like he was watching a fishing match, passing the phone over seamlessly to his expert summariser whenever one got away 'down the channels'. Quality radio." The Diary is yet to enjoy the geographical embrace of LRFM, Clav, but I'd be interested to receive any further comments from you lot - especially as my sole experience of the station thus far was of waiting in vain for any sign of a post-match interview between slabs of crushingly dull 1980s pop-rock.