Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 1 September 2011

1 September 2011

So there we have it, ladies and gentlemen. The slamming and snapping and speculating of the transfer window has come to an end. And all that remains is a Town squad which, to be honest, hasn't been doing particularly well so far, plus a left-back/wing-back/midfielder type from Rotherham by the name of Jamie Green, signed on non-contract terms. Which, I'm pretty sure, means that Shorty and Shouty aren't really that certain that he's going to be of any use at all. Well, at least it's over until January; at least we know the faces we're going to be seeing over the next few months. On the pitch, that is; it would be folly to assume that we will recognise the faces in the dug-out come January.

Your Part-Time Diary hasn't done one of these since the season started, and what a black day it is to return. If there were a home game on today, it would have to be marked using black armbands and maybe a minute's silence. Or perhaps a minute's sarcastic, gallows humour applause. Maybe even the burning of a suited effigy in the centre-circle. For today is the day that marks the ten-year decline from the very pinnacle of the Football League to almost the very bottom of the division below it. In the ten years preceding today's date Grimsby have contrived to fall a colossal 115 places down the leagues.

I suppose it's quite fitting that in this season, the ten-year anniversary, Grimsby have sunk further and decorated the decade of decline with probably their most humiliating defeat, managerial rants at supporters and late night meetings in non-League grounds' car parks.

It's like one of those rags-to-riches sports films but full throttle in reverse: we are the Mighty Ducks but backwards. On the brink of promotion to the Premier League (I know that's completely untrue, as we were only top for a day, but this is a film, remember), then sent hurtling down through the leagues through a series of disastrous managerial appointments by our tyrannical chairman (cartoon villain). Then there was the standard bit where it looked like things would suddenly go disastrously right under Slade. But, as with all these films, defeat was snatched at the last moment and we continued on our journey to the bottom of the Conference. It's got blockbuster written all over it, the antidote to all that sugary-sweet American underdog bollocks, except the kids would all come out crying and no one would buy the DVD.

In other, more light-hearted news, Craig Disley was the star witness to all sorts of fairground shenanigans on his day out in Skegness. On his Twitter beforehand @Dizza20 said: "Off to skegvegas for the day with the kids try and lighten the mood a bit" before finding his 'fairground terror' picture being used by national newspapers and being interviewed over the broken down-rides. Oh Craig, I bet none of this happened before you joined Grimsby did it?