Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 2 February 2011

2 February 2011

You know it, your original/regular Diary knows it, and Neil Woodses knows it: the Mariners' bid for the play-offs is being undermined by the failure of his team to compete for 90 minutes. Where you and I probably come to differ from the Town manager is over the exact length of time they do compete for. "At the moment we are only giving ourselves 45 minutes to win games," Neil tells the Grimsby Telegraph. Many observers of last night's 2-2 draw at Southport would argue that, far from half the match, GTFC started to play only after the sending-off of Shaun Whalley for the home side with just a quarter of the game remaining. Sandgrounders manager Liam Watson, however, says the outcome was a fair result - a remarkably generous verdict given his side's utter dominance for the first hour.

So what did you make of Town's activity during the transfer window? It seems to me that Woodses filled exactly the positions in which his squad seemed lightest. We have our big lump of a forward - and Rob Duffy has wasted no time at all in opening his account. We have another option for wide midfield in Serge Makofo. And the lack of dynamism in central midfield has been addressed by the arrival of, um, 34-year-old Bryan Hughes. Ignore that facetious "um", because Hughes was an excellent player in his prime and many an ageing maestro has enjoyed a non-League Indian summer. And the Diary was never worried for a moment that Alan Connell would leave on Monday, because the chairman staked his reputation on it. And you don't gamble with a reputation as big and unblemished as John Fenty (Topcon)'s.

With no further transfer activity, no matches for another 10 days, and nothing in the inbox, then, that's all from the Diary today (although the email address diary@codalmighty.com should be working again now, so if you have a word to say, say it there). So cheerio for now. Those looking for further reading are directed towards the latest post by Lawrence Gray-Hodson at the admirable Three And In blog, in which the former Scotland and England international takes a look at the dark forces behind Fernando Torres' recent transfer to Chelsea Football Club. For once, make sure you do read the comments.