Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 13 November 2009

13 November 2009

After two cup defeats in the last six days the Grimsby Town players are tired. Your Guest Diarist knows this because the careworn caretaker manager Mr Woods told me and the rest of the select few that are daft enough to pay to hear the prospects for Town in their away game at Northampton tomorrow.

Tired? We fans are tired too. And brave enough to admit we are dispirited. Too dispirited to even gossip about who will be appointed as manager. Does it really matter, we say. They all possess qualities, they all have weaknesses. They all can point to CV features that show they have been 'winners'. They all claim not to be quitters. They have all failed: either they have failed, or they want their first chance to be a manager - the chance to fail.

The chairman signed a new director this week: the manager thing can wait, one assumes. Fenty, having rushed to knock on Alan Buckley's door without thinking through how long it would take for Lord Buckley to mould a winning team, and then having rushed to excitedly sign up Mr Newell without getting character references, is and should be chastened. So he is dithering this time - unsure of what to look for, and bereft of professional advice.

The new director has also allowed himself to be interviewed on the subscription-only Mariners Player. His credentials appear twofold - he is a lifelong fan, and he is prepared to loan the club the requisite money to get the kudos of being a director. More small-town seafood experience, more of the same lack of experience in running a professional football club. In the interview, Mike Parker comes across as a nice chap. He also appears detached from any decision-making going on at the club and gives no indication that he can offer anything apart from hometown business homily. Another puff or two of air into the punctured Town balloon, but no likelihood of a workmanlike repair to it.

So the Town squad were disappointing in training on Thursday - Woods said so. And he weakly tried to imply that if they didn't perk up in today's session he'd have no hesitation in dropping them. Town's squad is bigger, I suppose, by virtue of no-one being suspended for a change. Those that were injured last week still are, and those who played at Leeds are not. Just tired. It is Danny North and Michael Leary's turn to mumble platitudes to the Telegraph. North made his debut three years ago at Northampton and brags that League clubs enquired about him when Newell made North available a few weeks ago. Well, bravo, Danny.

Leary thinks that he and Sweeney are all the world desires in a central midfield combo: Sweeney the flamenco dancer, and Leary a veritable toreador of a tackler. The truth of it is that Leary is shit scared of losing his place to a loanee, and that Sweeney, Sweeney with that sweet left foot, Sweeney doesn't need to give a shit: he's an artist.

It's harder than it's ever been to care about Town. Especially when you know that tomorrow the closing down and the physical side are going to be a world away from the space and time the lads got at Leeds. Can we get a point? It's doubtful, even against the out-of-form Cobblers. See yer.