Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 11 October 2007

11 October 2007

Are Town really just three games from Wembley? And, perhaps more pertinently, if they get there will anyone bother going to watch? Happily for the Diary - because there's bugger all else in the way of news today - the apathy that surrounds both the Dulux Cup and Grimsby Town Football Club has not precluded some of you reader types from chipping in some emails following the Mariners' win on penalties at Rotherham on Tuesday night.

As we observed here before the match, it is a dubious enough decision to allow Nigel Miller to referee any game of football at all and one that reaches the very extremes of moral abjection when one of the teams involved is nicknamed the Millers. Sadly, the anticipated flurry of emails pointing out that the Mariners have been refereed by Andre Marriner on more than one occasion has failed to materialise. Happily, one did, and it comes from my friend and colleague Mat Hare. "I know Nigel Miller is a top-class arse but I think it's a little unfair to accuse him of bias due to his surname when Grimsby Town have..." well, you know the rest. The issue now is whether, in the light of Town's opponents tomorrow night, GTFC ought to be employing people called Dale.

"Jolly good, another Paint Trophy fixture," writes Michael Shelton, fresh from finishing his latest Famous Five book. "Didn't we discover in the aftermath of beating Tottenham a few years ago that games in this competition are actually cheaper to lose than to win due to player bonuses?" Er, did we? "If anyone was there I would be interested to know whether the players celebrated the win. I can see Buckley might play up the importance having won it once." Well, the Diary was one of a couple of hundred Town fans there, Mikey, and yes, the players seemed chuffed to bits after the pennoes. Subscribers to Mariners World can see this for themselves, as the club's subscription web service is currently offering "Extended Rotherham Highlights", though other than the Town players having a group hug at the end, and the teams running out at the start, this just seems to mean the two goals and the spot kicks, and a frustratingly narrow camera angle throughout.

And finally today, Alan Buckley has expressed frustration at the failure of his latest attempts to bring in reinforcements to his slender squad. Well, actually, he hasn't today, but he probably will again tomorrow. See ya!