Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 12 November 2008

12 November 2008

Hard-nosed GTFC officials have upped the stakes in a blazing high-profile public row about whether the club's latest trialist plays in midfield or up front. Yesterday the club's superb new official website informed Town fans that former Gretna player Mickaël Buscher, who will appear for the reserves at home to Barnsley this afternoon, is a midfielder - flying in the face of the two or three websites the Diary found during a half-arsed Google search which reckoned he's a striker. "Buscher is a left sided midfield player," insists the SNOS today (giving a starting XI for the stiffs which includes another trialist in Neale 'Not David' McDermott). "We've put a lot of work into getting the position of this player right and the lack of support from the council is extremely disappointing. I don't think there's any qualms about that. In terms of the position of the player, the attitude of David Burns has been extremely frustrating. I'd sell the club if somebody wanted to buy it, except I wouldn't. Nothing could be further from the truth. Vroom vroom!" John Fenty might have said if anyone had asked him.

Town fans thinking Adam Proudlock could be the medium-term answer to the team's goalscoring problems have got another think coming. After narrowly failing to mark his debut with a goal at Morecambe last Saturday, hopes are high among supporters - well, as high as hopes ever get on North East Lincolnshire - that the Darlington loanee could be the heavyweight forward the Mariners have been crying out for since the retirement of Gary Jones - but Proudlock's manager has put a dampener on the notion of the transfer becoming permanent when it expires in January. "He needs games and we can't guarantee them at the moment. But he is very much in our future plans," Darlo boss Dave Penney told the north-east's Sunday Sun newspaper. "He has worked hard on getting into shape and now he needs match sharpness, which is why he has gone to Grimsby." "As one door closes, another one slams in your face," responded GTFC spokesman Mr E Blackadder.

"I got sent this poem by an friend in Colorado who has been watching our team's plight with open-mouthed amazement," writes Jeremy Baily to the Diary. "I posted the link on The Fishy; you might like to read it too." The poem is 'Casey at the Bat' by Ernest Thayer; Jeremy adds: "For Mudville read Grimsby. I know it's about baseball, but it fits us as well (written in 1888). Hope you like it." Yes, thanks for sending it. The parallels are quite remarkable, with one major exception: at the Mudville game "A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest/Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast", whereas at Blundell Park it is more usually the "straggling few" who remain at the final whistle, "the rest" having already turned their backs on their team and fucked off home with ten minutes left to play, purportedly in the hope of avoiding non-existent traffic congestion.