Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 25 November 2009
25 November 2009
Today's turn at Tell The Telegraph We've Not Been The Best Lately But We'll Get Better Now, Honest falls to Barry Fucking Conlon! Less than four weeks ago the popular Irish frontman scored a 95th-minute equaliser at home to Accrington Stanley and told the Telegraph: "It felt like a win", "I think we deserved a point" and "Hopefully we can build on that now", only for the team to score one goal in their next five games, fail to win any of them, and crash out of the FA Cup to Bath City. And today Conlon is back with more heart-warming reassurances that the players really care and aren't really laughing contemptuously at the fans who pay their wages as they turn their backs on the pitch and shrug after another abject failure to perform or compete in any meaningful way. After last night's 3-0 shite-out against an average-looking Bradford side who could have played on until Christmas without conceding a goal, the charismatic striker astonishingly told the Telegraph: "We have to get our heads down, and get it sorted", "we need to go and get some results" and "hopefully I can get more starts over the next few weeks and we can pick up some results". Just like last time, eh, Baz.
So despite failing to win any of his six matches as caretaker manager, Neil Woods appeared to have secured the post permanently on the strength of back-to-back clean sheets and an improved performance at Lincoln last weekend. Last night, for Woods' first game since getting the job, normal service was resumed. If there were any justice in the world, Michael Leary would never pull on a black and white shirt again and Fucking Conlon's future would be hanging by a thread, but of course this is Grimsby Town, where failure is met with a shrug and ongoing job security, whether you're shit at playing football and you don't care or you're shit at running a website and you don't care. The headline of a short piece in the Macclesfield Express about Town's meeting with the Silkmen this Saturday is "Mariners will be eager to please new boss". Yeah, sure they will.
Still, at least the Football League Supporters Survey gives Town fans a chance to state their views - and perhaps even voice their frustrations! - to the movers and shakers of the game. Let's take a look at the treatment of the survey on the Mariners' superb new official website, shall we? "To take part in The Football League Supporters Survey 2010 click here," reads the fifth paragraph. And at this point Grimsby Town Football Club show precisely how much they care about the views of supporters, because whoever is responsible for the content of the superb new official website - and whose wages are paid from the money the supporters put into the club when we buy our tickets - couldn't be bothered to justify those wages and do their job properly by making "click here" into a link, so that when you click there, to express your views as a supporter, when you click the bit where it says "click here", nothing happens. Thanks for making clear exactly how much we matter to you, GTFC.
Fortunately, we can still have our say, as the link to the survey on the Football League's own site works perfectly well. The Diary urges all readers to take part, and take full advantage of the opportunity to have a say about the way our club (and perhaps also its superb new official website) is run.
Grant Normington is coming back from Frickley Athletic. Tom Corner has gone there on work experience to join Matthew Bird. Good luck to them all.
Among the Diary readers whose emails were rudely ignored by recent substitute diarists is Mark Wilson, who responded to one recent Diary's dietary revelations by asking: "Are 'game meatballs' meatballs made from game or as you try to eat them do they attempt to (a) seduce you or (b) offer to fight you? We demand to be told." Felix Oliver-Tasker, meanwhile, asked a few days ago: "Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps no one wants the job of managing Town? Would anyone of sound mind, sober, rational and be able to walk without his knuckles trailing on the ground actually want to be involved in the management of the company of has-beens, never-will-bes and never-wozzers that make up GTFC's first team squad? In addition there is Torquemada Fenty lurking in the background with itching fingers and a pocketful of matches waiting for the slightest hint of failure. We're doomed, doomed to the obscurity of the Conference and on our showing so far this season, let's face it lads, this is where we should be. God bless the good ship Cod Almighty." I don't know, Felix, such negativity. Tsk. Anyway, see you next year at Eastbourne Borough.