Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 26 September 2012

26 September 2012

A player who can't get into Crawley's first team combined with a player who can't get into Bradford's first team to score a goal for Grimsby Town's first team last night that was of such pace and class that you're unlikely to see better this season. I haven't seen any replays of it yet and today's Telewag report doesn't seem to make much of it, so maybe it's the euphoria that's still reverberating around my rose-tinted brain that's making our third goal against Gateshead seem so good. Maybe it's the vertigo of being fourth. Maybe I'm just mental.

It may have taken them 18 months to get there, but last night your West Yorkshire Diary saw just what sort of team Shorty and Shouty have been trying to assemble. Two dominating centre-halves, two energetic and agile full-backs, pace on the wings, enforcers in the middle, a mobile target man and a goal poacher up front. And last night it all came together very nicely indeed. Not one of them was anything less than magnificent.

Not since the arrivals of Martin Pringle and Andy Todd in February 2002 have I been this excited about a couple of loan players. Scott Neilson and Ross Hannah basically look a class above this division. Let's not worry about what might or might not happen in three months' time when the duo's loan deals expire. Let's hope that Alan Connell continues to bang them in for the Bantams and that the Creepy Ones consolidate their position in the third division. I did not want to say that last bit, believe you me.

Last night was meant to be a test; last Friday was a 'stern' test; and now this Saturday's trip has also been put into this ever-expanding 'test' category. In order to pass tests these days, footballers are asked to step up in gears. I'm not entirely sure what gear this current Town team is in, and I don't really care - as long as it's not reverse.

This is not meant to sound patronising in any way whatsoever but the dozen hardy souls who made the game from Gateshead (and who were accompanied by six Town stewards - presumably in case it all kicked off in the Osmond) deserved a massive pat on the back. They fought the floods to be there - and they made it on time, unlike these grumpy souls from Luton, who had their own travel troubles last Friday and missed the first half.