Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 7 October 2011

7 October 2011

A very few years ago (it seems a lifetime to your melancholic Guest Diarist) the original Mr Diary conceived and orchestrated a campaign to Shut Down The Town. Orchestration was relatively easy, I suspect because the take-up of this cause was largely of the rueful grin variety. The campaign never stopped, but, like the Supporters Trust, just went a bit dormant due to other priorities, hobbies and faahmerlee stuff. But it's time to think about it again.

The club's business model is irretrievably ruinous. The sport of which Mardy Diary wrote so movingly here yesterday has been diminished by the merry-go-round of journeymen signings (how can you have a different set of heroes every single season?). The hardcore fans are being punished in their pockets, being punished by watching impoverished performances, and being tortured by the melodramatic posturing of the money men who control the club. It's time to follow the BBC and stop showing live football and watch repeats instead.

With, say, 20,000 potential subscribers, GTFC TV has possibilities. It only needs to broadcast at 3pm each Saturday and 8pm every other Tuesday. The programme should be called When Town Were Good and would contain re-runs of Town victories, honourable draws and the occasional plucky defeat.

Speaking of the BBC cuts, I read yesterday that regional radio is to stop broadcasting on the AM waveband. The BBC is determined to show its regionality by shipping lots of unwilling London types to Salford at the same time as decimating local radio stations with savage cuts. The three broadcast channels (AM, FM, DAB) available to Radio Humberside mean the station can meet the demand for three simultaneous live commentaries on a Saturday afternoon. If AM is no longer available, they'll have to choose between matches. Good luck with that one on the phone-in, Burnsy.

And, returning to the theme of calling journeymen 'heroes', what seems like half of each team in the match at Mansfield tomorrow has played for the other side. The Telegraph has made this the central feature of all the various articles it has written about the game. But do I care what Fen Butcher thinks about Town? To be honest, I don't.

Young striker Sam Mulready, just back from being on loan at North Ferriby, has now gone south to join Boston for a month. The managers had obviously not told the other players being made available for loan, so the subscribers to Mariners Player got a coy response about other loans. But a statement published yesterday said: "Damian Spencer, Kenny Arthur, youngsters Andi Thanoj and Charlie I'Anson are also to be made available for loans."

This is no doubt in part because the squad is reported to be completely injury-free. But it highlights the culture of profligate spending at a small, penniless club: why did we even sign Spencer? I seem to recall the solitary reason given was that "Damian gives us something different". And how can a club in our position afford two full-time goalkeepers? Thanoj and Mulready will benefit from loan spells. In my opinion I'Anson should be in the team, or at worst, on the bench. He is going to be the best centre-half at the club; he may be already. He represents a future saleable asset in the next fire sale and the more experience he gets at the higher level the better. It's not as though our other centre-halves don't make mistakes, is it?

Town fan Michael Rushby, who lives in that foreign, has written in to respond to the question about four-goal men for Town. "Please ask Miss Diary to check out Town v Hartlepool 15 November 1952," he urges, "a 7-0 win, and, if my ageing memory serves me right, we had a centre-forward with the illustrious name of Fred Smith (no Waynes, Darrens and Jasons in those days) who scored four in (I think) seven minutes attacking the Osmond end." And then he dropped us another line: "I knew that a night of insomnia would jog the memory and, of course, I then recalled Ron Rafferty's four goals in a 4-4 draw at Lincoln City - try 1958. My recollection is that Town were four down with about 20 minutes remaining and then Rafferty scored his goals - probably all headers as his feet were mainly for standing, not shooting. Scott, Rafferty and Fell - those halcyon days."

Thanks Michael - hmm, Halcyon TV - that does have a ring to it. See yer.