Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 6 March 2008

6 March 2008

The kids, as some doddery old bastard once sang, are alright - and at the moment there can't be many who are alrighter than Ryan Bennett. Town's brightest prodigy has acquitted himself with staggering maturity this season not only on the field, where his youth is belied by the calm effectiveness of his defending, but also in his Mariners World interviews, where he comes across as a decent young man who is grateful for the chances he's been given. In short, the Diary approves of young Bennett - and in this I am joined by Lord Alan Buckley, who has spoken warmly of the player in a Grimsby Telegraph interview after his recent recognition as fourth division apprentice of the year. "The way he conducts himself, and the manner he approaches his football is first class. He is a level-headed lad with tremendous ability and could quite easily go all the way to the top in the game," Buckley said. "I hope Straight Peter Bore is watching, because that stroppy little bugger could learn a lot from Ryan," he didn't add but could have.

One former player who, it is fair to say, conducted himself less well both on and off the pitch is Ashley Sestanovich. One of Russell Slade's early signings on a loan from Sheffield United in 2004, Transit Stan wowed Town fans with his pace and technique and then unwowed them again with a daft sending-off and a primadonna-ish I'm-too-good-to-be-a-sub flounce-out. Far worse was to follow, of course, as the player was eventually jailed for eight years for assisting a robbery in which a man was shot dead in south London - and it is in relation to this episode that Sestanovich is back in the headlines. The player's last club, Grays Athletic, is at risk of being thrown out of all competitions by the FA for refusing to fork out the his wages for the five months leading up to his conviction in 2006. "We are being forced to pay approximately £14,000 to a player who only had three training sessions and 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly," laments club chairman Mike Woodward. Which is undoubtedly harsh, but then Town had to pay approximately that much per week to Zhang Enhua, and all he did was ruin Peter Handyside's career and plunge the club into thousands more pounds of tax debt.

That's all from me for this week, but Friday will, as usual, see Guest Diary summarise thoughtfully a range of matters both footballing and not. So don't miss it. Thanks for reading and I'll see you on Monday. Byeee.