Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 26 January 2009

26 January 2009

Was it just the Diary, or did you also think Joe Widdowson had put a bit too much power on that cross, half a second before it turned out to be a shot and crashed into the net? And after almost a whole decade of decline has the tide turned at last for Grimsby Town Football Club? Keep sticking your money on Newell's rejuvenated side, because on Saturday's evidence the odds won't stay long for, er, long as the Mariners climb that table.

"It was more kamikaze stuff from us, rather than anything Grimsby have done," is the verdict of a sulky Mark Robins following Saturday's evidence. Clearly brassed off at finding a rather different Mariners team to the one that rolled over in the autumn at the Millers' borrowed pad, the Rotherham boss seems to have spent the weekend trying to convince himself and the world that his 'physical' side deserved something out of the game - a verdict that even many of Rotherham's fans seem to view as over-optimistic. In the Diary's view Robins is being harsh on his back four - surely Town's first and third goals would have foxed most fourth division defences - and his outburst about the Mariners' penalty is nothing more than infantile. Since the recent arrival of Baby Diary I have been reading up on baby development, and the literature clearly states that most people are less than two years old when they grasp the notion that something might still exist or occur even if it is not within their field of vision at the time.

In fairness to Robins, he has confirmed what most observers at Saturday's game suspected: that he substituted his left-back at half time out of sheer amazement that the player already hadn't been sent off. I think most of us would do the same if we were managing Andy Nicholas and he'd made it through the first half without a red despite committing three bookable offences.

The outpourings of the Rotherham manager are of concern to Dave Chambers, who has emailed the Diary quoting this one about the penalty: "The linesman doesn't know why; the fourth official doesn't know why; I don't think anyone in the ground knows why." Dave's answer: "Because one of Rotherham's big brute defenders was holding Adam Proudlock's shirt thereby stopping him from moving? Possibly not obvious from the visitors' dug-out, but certainly I saw it from the Pontoon, as did those around me. Robins's whinges won't mask over a great performance from Town. We murdered them! Well done Mike Newell, and well done the players he sent out."

Speaking of your emails, apologies to those of you who sent them during the Diary's recent absence and didn't see your words put up on this page because the sub diarists forgot to check the email. I will spare blushes by preserving the anonymity of the readers who were convinced Stuart Elliott couldn't play 90 minutes and who were probably drunk when they emailed. Meanwhile Jim in Manchester asks: "Any chance of a Mike Newell T-shirt being added to the great range of T-shirts available on Cod Almighty? I love my 'Grimsby is not in Yorkshire' and 'Sergeant Whittle' T-shirts but tend to wear my 'Alan Buckley's Black and White Army' behind closed doors these days. Being exiled in Manchester I find the CA T-shirts provide good talking points with fellow followers of the beautiful game or some sort of 'Grimsby, who are they?' remark from armchair United fans. It would be nice to be able to wear some kind of Newell-based T-shirt; don't know what sort of slogan you would put on it, 'In Newell we trust' or such like." Perhaps the Cod Almighty T-shirt man could bring us an update on that, when he's finished crossing his fingers that he'll be able to shift all that unsold stock when Buckley lands the Notts County job.