Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 7 July 2009
7 July 2009
Throughout his managerial career, when Alan Buckley signed players he'd worked with at previous clubs, it tended to be seen by supporters as some kind of defect in his ability, contacts book, imagination or general personality. When Mike Newell does it at Grimsby, on the other hand, it's a sign that players "want to play for him", and that we ought to trust in his ability. Of course we ought: we're fans and we know fuck all, really; it's just a curious thing that this trust seems so rarely extended. Adrian Forbes, who played for Mr Re-Newell at Luton, has rejoined the Mariners on a two-year contract, with no real indication as to whether he will play up front (Forbes' own preferred position, but where Town have plenty of options already), play on the right wing (where Town seem to have no obvious options already), or mostly just sit on the bench (as he did during his loan spell with Town last season). Nice lad, though. Very committed to the cause.
Another characteristic of Buckley's teams was that, rather than relying on a single prolific striker, the goals (when they came) would be spread around the team because of his preference for forwards who could hold up the ball and bring other players into the attack - or, as his critics often preferred to phrase it, shit players who can't score. The reason this springs to mind today is that Town have taken on trial a forward, Andy Smith, who apparently scored lots of goals in his native Northern Ireland (despite disappearing for two months) but has failed to find the net in more than 40 senior appearances in the English and Scottish leagues and 18 outings for the Northern Ireland national team. One must keep an open mind, of course - but one is not helped by the somewhat negative phrasing of the player's entry on Wikipedia, nor by Town's superb new official website having copied and pasted it word for discouraging word.
Third division Stockport County have decided the ideal distraction from their financial woes would be a friendly with fourth division Grimsby Town and arranged just such a fixture at Edgeley Park on Saturday 25 July with a 3pm kick-off. How do we know? Not because Grimsby Town's superb new official website has told us, because it hasn't. Because Stockport County's official website has told us, and I haven't really got time to ascertain whether it is either superb or new. The Diary used to enjoy going to a couple of friendlies every summer and checking out the new players, but if they think I'm paying ten quid to watch what is basically a training session with a referee - or, indeed, 14 quid for the same thing against Scunthorpe, they can bleedin' well think again. Yeah, I know there was a free voucher thing with the season ticket. No, I've got no idea what I've done with it.
The Grimsby Telegraph has been busy all summer long looking for GTFC-related news, however tenuous, and a couple more FORMER stories have arisen today. First up, FORMER Myspace Mariner Josh Burge is nattering about his forthcoming stint with Ilkeston Town of the Northern Premier League. At the other end of the game Town's FORMER assistant manager Stuart Watkiss and twice FORMER goalkeeper Aidan Davison have joined the coaching staff at first division King$ton Communication$ FC, prompting a stunning about-turn by Grimsby's web literati - from "boooo, Watkisses out, boooooo" to "good luck Stu, did a good job for us". Burge's successors in Town's youth team, meanwhile, are the subject of a story about their fixture list, in which the Telewag observes: "A new opponent for the Mariners this season is Burton Albion and the Town youngsters will travel away to Derbyshire first on November 14." Which begs the questions of: (1) who they'll be playing when they travel to Derbyshire; and (2) exactly when it is that they'll travel to Staffordshire to play Burton Albion.
Lastly today, we return to the ubiquitous Jeremy Baily and more of his discoveries in the way of Mariners-themed hostelries. This time Jeremy offers us the Mariners Club apartments of Alcudia, Spain, the Mariners Hotel of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the charming-looking Mariners Rock restaurant of Cornwall. All very nice, I'm sure, but do any of them serve a pint of Willy's?