Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 2 January 2008

2 January 2008

They say that if you can play badly and still win, that's the mark of a side on its way to promotion. If they're right then our first significant action of 2008, readers, should be a dash out to the bookies to put our mortgages on a late surge to the top three for the Mariners, as the team followed up Saturday's deserved but unconvincing win over Lincoln with a 2-0 victory at Chester yesterday in spite of a first half described by Lord Alan Buckley as "the worst game of football I have seen in my life". In fairness to the Messiah, he probably wasn't at Town's home win against the Deviants two years ago, which is the worst game of football the Diary has seen in my life, nor the 2-1 reverse at the Stadium of Breezeblocks three months before that, which is possibly the second worst game of football the Diary has seen in my life or indeed anyone else's. What is it about these two clubs that always produces such dire excuses for sport? Answers on the back of a programme please, if you can find room in between the teeth marks.

In all this lack of excitement the Diary forgot to mention on New Year's Eve that Town had announced an extension to Nathan Jarman's contract "into the New Year". Whether this means he will be released next week is no more clear than the issue of why the announcement was made at all, given that no similar public declaration had been made about the regular renewals of the player's month-to-month contract. Rather more hot off the press is today's news that Blond Bob Atkinson's loan has been extended for a further month - and pretty good news it is too, given the Barnsley lad's recent fine form at the back. "I spoke to Simon Davey yesterday, Rob's happy to stay and we're happy to have him," says yer man Buckley, which sounds like a very cosy babysitting arrangement indeed.