Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 10 March 2008
10 March 2008
As nice as it may have been to watch the Mariners actually keeping clean sheets and winning games since their remarkable post-Christmas turnaround in form, there's only so much pleasure you can take from a team where none of the players have ever cracked Alan Shearer's smug face open and spilt his blood upon the Blundell Park turf. If we can't watch Justin Whittle on the pitch, though, we can at least see him in action on the pages of today's Grimsby Telegraph, where the iconic centre-half is to be found tackling the slippery issue of who should captain the side in his absence. Lord Alan Buckley has been unable to settle on a permanent skipper in recent months, with half a dozen players having taken turns on the armband, much to Whitts' amusement. "The gaffer seems a bit superstitious sometimes about it," observes the player. "It's just good to see the team doing well after the start we had. Whether that's down to all the different captains and their styles I'm not sure." Our ex-military stalwart goes on to express his hope of winning back a place in the team, but as the improved form of Town's defence continues, the captaincy looks set to continue rotating between just about every member of the squad bar Straight Peter Bore.
That said, Buckley's players looked some way short of their best for large spells of Friday night's home defeat against Bastard Franchise Scum - and even the manager has publicly suggested that the outcome might have been different had John Fenty (Con) not greased the wheels of the BFS promotion juggernaut by gutlessly accommodating their request that the game be moved forward from the Saturday afternoon just because they're playing again tonight. OK, those aren't his exact words, and what Buckley actually says to the Grimsby Telegraph is: "I would have liked another couple of days after Tuesday and let all this Wembley thing settle down. Off the pitch it can't, because there is so much to be organised, but from the players' point of view, I would have liked them to have had a couple of days' hard training and a bit of a breather. Tonight has come a bit too quick for us." In the context of JF(C)'s disgraceful and literally self-defeating decision to place the Franchise's convenience ahead of Town's own interests, this can easily be read as implicit criticism of the chairman by the manager. But the Telegraph, of course, is too shit-scared of Fenty's bullying of the media even to remind us of that context.
Diary reader Graham Plastow has emailed with some glorious reminiscences of his time supporting the Mariners, though these end with an abruptness that has the Diary fearing some kind of medical emergency. "In working my way through the site," he begins, "in idle moments on the road when Diary read and no horses to bet on, I noticed the lack of our 1965-66 FL Cup quarter final game with West Ham United in the club honours. The WHU of Moore, Hurst and Peters. Fresh from the ECWC win and tuning up for West Germany against the Mariners. In turn, the Town of Graham Taylor (yes that one), Matt Tees, Rod Green, Brian Hill, Ron Green and Charlie Wright. Also Big Ron (Cockerill) who may actually have been absent for injury, but his centre-back partner was playing, his name slips my aging brain, but he held the appearance record until Macca took it so gloriously. I know it was a quarter final because it was my debut at Blundell Park. More than 16,000 in the crowd and still a good view for a kid in the Pontoon that night. A glorious 2-2 with a Tees and Green double. The replay was lost by a single goal on their thin pitch, and I bet the goal was offside, at least that's what we said at school. I made a few other games that season including a". And that's where it ends. Graham? Are you OK, mate? Email again and put our minds at rest. I won't sleep at night until I find out which other games you went to!