Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 17 October 2007

17 October 2007

Several weeks after he was released by the Mariners, Luke Foulkes is still mysteriously plying his trade in the club's reserve team. It was on 13 September that Town announced the departure of the young right-back as Alan Buckley "decided to let the play [sic.] get fixed up elsewhere" - yet Foulkes continued to turn out for the club's second string and did so again in last night's Hi-De-Hi Cup fixture ("I was a familiar story tonight as Town Reserves were beaten 2-0 at Bradford City," claims Town's superbly egocentric new official website). It is not known whether the player exhibited a sudden upsurge in form just as he was packing up his things to leave, or has simply insisted on serving out his contract, which the Diary believes runs until next month, but regular attendees at Town's reserve fixtures are now looking forward to next Wednesday's game against Scunthorpe as a chance to check on the form of Jermaine Palmer, Glen Downey and David 'Digger' Soames.

Russell 'Sort It' Slade may not know a Frenchman from a French-speaking African but he knows a thing or two about getting job offers. With Slade's Yeovil side again challenging strongly in the third division, just three points off the top of the table, Glovers chairman John Fry has turned down an approach from Millwall for the services of the former Mariners boss - and revealed that he did likewise when Carlisle Five set off on a similar mission only last month. "He's done a fantastic job here and it's inevitable he will be in demand," said Fry, "but he's got a long-term contract here and this club is heading for the Championship." Funny how he's so sought after these days, isn't it. I know he ended up taking Town to within a hair's breadth of promotion, but it barely seems like yesterday that the Pontoon was chanting "Slade out" because the side was temporarily becalmed in the lower half of the table.

At first he was unnamed, he was petrified. But then he had Stuart Watkiss by his side. He's got all his goals to give, he's got so much life to live - even at the age of 33. He is, of course, Town's new striker Martin Butler; God only knows whether he will live up to the expectations we are unreasonably piling upon his shoulders before he's so much as kicked a ball for the Mariners, but the club is already conferring legend status on the player by auctioning off his shirt on the internet. If he can survive that he'll survive anything.

Lastly today, Loughborough Mariner has emailed to help us all a find a little perspective in these crazy days of change. "Thought you might appreciate a look at this from the Gillingham fans' site that my mate at work sent me," writes LM, adding a link to a post from the Gills blog Brian Moore's Head. "Fucking hell - where do you start?" begins the author. "At Priestfield we aren't too bad, but away it is the most unprofessional, gutless shambolic pile of shite I've ever witnessed. I've been going 29 years, I watched us home and away during the darkest days of 89-95, every game on the notorious 92-93 season and yet none of that compares with the current crop." And even those most loudly bemoaning the Mariners' current shortcomings would be hard pressed to claim that there is less cause for hope now than in the darkest days of Law, Laws and Lyons, and perhaps even Paul Groves' unfortunate tenure. "The language is much worse than Tony Butcher's eloquent missives from the terraces," agrees Loughborough, "but it does give you a bit of warm glow to appreciate that things could be much, much worse!"