Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 11 October 2011

11 October 2011

We're about a third of the way in to Town's second season as a non-League club. And despite - or, more likely, because of - the board's constant fine tuning of their managerial staff, we look further away from a return to the Football League than this time last year. So what's the problem? Why did the Mariners play well for half an hour at Mansfield on Saturday, go a goal up, and then basically shrug their shoulders and fuck off? If you don't like the cut of their jib, you blame the managers. If you're one of the managers, you blame the players. "The players are either not listening or not willing to do what we ask of them," reflected one of the Shorty and Shouty team in yesterday's Grimsby Telegraph. To which the most reasonable response would seem to be: "Well, why did you sign them then?"

But that was bloody yesterday, and your original/regular Diary doesn't want to change the world: I'm just looking for a new Grimsby. At home to Barrow tonight would be as good a place as any to begin. Town's flawed defence will face another stiff challenge, however, in a visiting side that hasn't failed to score so far this season. And with 10 goals in 16 games this season, there's a player to fear in former Plucky Scunny forward Adam Boyes (insert your own '39p or 3-for-£1 transfer fee' joke here). The GTFC team news is anyone's guess really, but with a full squad of players to choose from Shorty and Shouty are expected to rotate their excuses should Town fail again. "It's the players' fault" may be rested this evening, with "we blame the referee" expected to be given a run-out, though "the rainy conditions hindered us disproportionately" may be an outside bet for inclusion.

Over to the Diary's inbox now, where Phil Watson asks: "Can anyone explain the current mania for playing in a change strip even when it's quite unnecessary? At the weekend England not only turned in an ugly performance - they did do in a truly ugly strip: mismatched dark blue shirts and light blue shorts. Montenegro played in all red: how would white shirts and blue shorts (or even all white) have clashed with that? Here the motivation is clear enough - to separate some nationalist fan with more money than sense from his cash by selling him yet another shirt. At Mansfield, Town played in all white, for reasons known only to their kit man. How would black and white shirts, black shorts and red socks have clashed with Mansfield's blue and yellow? Is any Town fan really going to spring for an all white third strip? Is it too much to suggest that looking like a Grimsby Town team, week in and week out, might contribute just slightly to our current gaggle eventually playing like one?"

Phil goes on to point out that when kits actually do clash, the officials do nothing about it. He cites Lincoln's visit to BP the other season, when they played in grey and the two teams merged into much of a monochrome muchness. The grey kit, of course, brings us back to the matter of excuses for losing. And there's no manager better at trotting those out than Sir Alex Ferguson, as evidenced back in 1996 when his Manchester United Inc. suffered a first-half collapse at the Dell and he ordered the players to change out of their grey shirts at half time.

Lastly today, let's congratulate ex-Towner Ryan Bennett on his England under-21 debut last night. The O'Peterborough centre-half played the full 90 against Norway, where our nation's youth came out 2-1 winners to maintain the 100 per cent start to their European qualifying campaign that is certain to see the senior side win the 2018, 2022 and 2026 World Cups. And if the GTFC club shop is struggling to flog replica shirts, at least this should put a few quid on the value of Bennett's sell-on clause.