Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 15 January 2008

15 January 2008

You know that old proverb: if it ain't broke, don't fix it, unless you're Russell Slade, in which case sign Fen Butcher, Junior Mendes and Marc Goodfellow and then sod off to Yeovil. It is surely this time-honoured truism that Lord Alan Buckley had in mind, together with the much-improved form of his team, when he told the local paper just now that he probably won't be signing any more players in the January transfer window. "I like to try and forge a squad and get a settled side," the resurgent Town boss has informed the Grimsby Telegraph, pointing out extensions to the loans of Rob Atkinson and Sam Hird, and Martin Butler's loan becoming permanent. "We'll see what happens but I'm not one for rushing into signings for the sake of it," adds Buckley, who hopefully has a failsafe contingency plan hidden in his underpants for if Barnsley recall Atkinson at 24 hours' notice.

Are you interested in "joining up with the Mariners"? Are you even more interested in what "joining up with the Mariners" might actually mean? OK, but keep reading anyway. The Diary has discovered a page on Town's superb new official website headed "Membership", dated 5 July 2007, and carrying the text "How to join up with the Mariners will appear here soon". How to join up with the Mariners did not, however, appear there at all, either soon or soonish. We have heard several times from John Fenty (Con) that Town's attendances this season - although they're slap bang average for the fourth division - have fallen below the figures budgeted for, but it would still be surprisingly optimistic if club officials were toying with the idea of a membership scheme to prioritise tickets in anticipation of Blundell Park being sold out every week.

Michael Shelton has emailed the Diary after I ran out of critical steam in yesterday's first two paragraphs and reported the dates for next month's Dulux Cup area final against Morecambe without lambasting GTFC officials in any way. "You're getting far too positive in your old age," chimes the cheeky young whippersnapper. "Negatives about the JPT fixture dates are easy to find. The fact that the return leg isn't on Monday 25th suggests, at least according to Sky's website, that it won't be televised live. This means (a) the club misses out on the income from Sky for live television coverage, and (b) all those Town fans living not in the Grimsby area with a dissertation presentation that week which will go a long way to deciding the result of their masters won't be able to watch it. John Fenty is so selfish..." Yeah. I bet the only result of the masters that matters to him is something to do with golf, eh?

And lastly today, another bloody student - this time Leon Harding, who is inviting CA readers to submit questions for him to ask on your behalf in a forthcoming interview with Sir John McDermott, which he's conducting "as part of a college course". The interview will be filmed and made available online in May, explains Leon. So if you've anything to ask the great man, email harding_leon@hotmail.com, and keep it clean.