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Diary - Wednesday 12 August 2009

12 August 2009

How we laughed over the summer, watching the predictions roll in from fans of other clubs that Town would be in for another struggle. Why, even the excellent and normally well-informed Twohundredpercent blog fell into the trap and anticipated 23rd place for our beloved GTFC, not to mention all the rubbish out there as well. How little they knew, as they pegged the Mariners for a second successive relegation battle, of the Newell revolution, of the waves of optimism sweeping through North East Lincolnshire, of the effect of Tom Newey no longer being anywhere near the building.

What, then, are we to make of the Mariners' heavy defeat last night at Tranmere? An uncanny and chilling echo of the tonking we received in the second week of last season when Brentford did us 4-0 as well, and hence a harbinger that all our summertime love and positivity are misplaced entirely, with all those predictions ringing in our ears and another demotion decider at the end of the season? The Diary is weary of optimism - so many times over the past seven years I have tried to do a little to keep readers' spirits up and loyalty strong, only for the football fates to piss in my face - but I will try to dwell instead on the fact that most observers seem to share David Burns' view that Town's latest tonking "certainly isn't a four-nil game". One swallow, summer, and all that. Will that do?

If nothing else, last night may have brought vindication for Mark Wilson and other Diary readers and Town fans who have briefly considered shelling out for the club's revamped and rebranded premium subscription web service Mariners Player, then remembered that absolutely everything the club does in the way of communications and media is completely fucking awful, all the time. And sure enough, it didn't take long for those Commentary Problems to make a first appearance of the new season. Still, it could have been worse - there's a subtle but significant difference between taking the piss and having one.

Loyal Diary reader and long-suffering Boston United fan Pete Brooksbank has sent an email. "It was with a good deal of sympathy that I read, in my CA catch-up today, Thursday's Diary mentioning how much harder it is to maintain a dedicated football website seven years down the line. I know what you mean. I started impsTALK, the badly-designed Boston site, way back in 2002. I remember thinking just days after I cobbled together my pitiful couple of pages of HTML: 'I really should back that up, just in case something goes tits up'. Seven years, two months and five days later, I still had that nagging thought in the back of my mind when my hard drive didn't so much fry as go supernova, taking impsTALK, a lot of music and all my unfinished rough guides of whoever Boston are playing this season with it. Sure, I guess I could start again, restore the template files, rewrite the guides. But, you know what? At this point in my life, I simply cannot be fucked. Besides, my lot have new managers and finally seem to be on an upward trajectory after a decade of turmoil. It's probably a good time to call it a day. So, I just read your site instead. It makes me chuckle, which is the most important thing, but it also restores my faith in the sanity of football fans after I've endured Tim Lovejoy's pathetic witterings on the radio. Keep it up. It's brilliant. And for God's sake lads, take a bloody back-up! P.S. When is Pete playing Nottingham?"

Well, thanks for the kind words, Mr Brooksbank. Sad to see the end of impsTALK, which brought the CA team a lot of smiles down the years - so we hope you do something else sometime. I'm not sure when Pete's playing Nottingham but I'm sure he'll let us know. And we absolutely agree about selflovejoy. Keep in touch!