Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 6 March 2013

6 March 2013

Town's 1-0 victory at Forest Green last night has been described unanimously as "massive". It seems no other words in the English language will do. Today the Mariners sit fourth and are well and truly back in this race for automatic promotion - if you could say they were ever really out of it.

You'd think that only losing once since November would allow you the luxury to drop a couple of points here and there and still remain in the hunt for automatic promotion. But, what with that FA Trophy run, Kidderminster and Mansfield's form, Gateshead's pitch and M62 traffic, it meant that Town had slipped from first to fifth in a blink of an eye and created an environment in which most Mariners fans felt only three points at the meat-free Gloucestershire gang would do. How nice that our newest squad member got them for us.

Your West Yorkshire Diary was hopeful but not expectant of such a result, and I'll tell you why: Sam Russell. Yes, the scourge of Grimsby teams from the past; pulling off saves left, right and centre to ensure that we always lost 1-0 to Darlington. However, since moving down south, he doesn't appear to hold such power over us any more. In fact, Town have won 1-0 both times when they've come up against Russell this season, going some way to redress the imbalance.

Poor old Derek Niven has become a victim of groin popping and looks likely to miss the FA Trophy final at Wembley in just under two weeks' time. The mere mention of Frankie Artus possibly returning to the fold only fuelled Shorty's thoughts of drafting in another loan player, citing a hectic fixture schedule as the reason. While we have an embarrassment of riches up front, which the managers seem determined to rotate in a way that precludes Ross Hannah and causes him to lose form, we have been a little thin in personnel elsewhere - especially at the back. With Shaun Pearson out through injury and Simon Ford out on loan, there was no cover whatsoever in central defence, which is at complete odds to the strategy employed when it comes to providing cover for strikers.

My work schedule today is looking as congested as Grimsby's fixture list, so I'll have to leave things here for now, folks. But there's just enough time to say that season ticket holders are now snapping up their Wembley tickets from the club shop - and get yourself down to Blundell Park this Saturday for the "massive" game against Kidderminster!