Cod Almighty | Diary

As you are here, do you fancy playing for us instead?

21 October 2014

The DVD Mariners Trust Presents: the Alan Buckley Years inevitably casts some players in a good light, others less kindly. Highlights, with their emphasis on goalmouth action, are bound to show the times when defenders have failed to do their job and when creative players and strikers are excelling. Goalkeepers come out looking erratic, even if they aren't Paul Crichton.

The perspective the DVD offers on Buckley's third spell may therefore be misleading. It appears as though we had the spine of a team. Gary Jones looks like the player we hoped to get when we signed Murray Jones. Someone who could contribute both when the ball was on the ground and in the air. Paul Bolland was central to the team, although Justin Whittle does not come out of the highlights too well. Around them, we had players who, on their day, working to their utmost, could (perhaps, viewed charitably) have belonged in an earlier Buckley team: Peter Bore, Danny North, Ciaran Toner, Nick Hegarty, and Danny Boshell.

Boshell was signed by Graham Rodger. Initially expected only to make up the numbers, he became an unexpected hit. "Bish-bash-Bosh", we called him. His light frame never stopping him from getting properly stuck in, and now and again he'd light up the churning mediocrity of a fourth-flight relegation game with a real touch of flair. Against that, wasn't it Boshell who once got sent off when, already booked, he ignored the warning not to take a free kick before the referee was ready?

Boshell's performances, and popularity, waned as the strain of flogging a squad of players not quite good enough into a Wembley final took its toll. Nevertheless, when he returns to Blundell Park on Saturday as Guiseley's player-assistant manager he deserves a warm welcome. Your Middle-Aged Diary is surprised to learn that he is still only 33, but I guess in non-League football that counts as a veteran.

To get the first shot on in the annual 'winning any game is good' versus 'concentrate on the league' war, our FA Cup qualifier is essential for our promotion prospects. A look at our results so far shows that at home against the teams occupying the bottom 11 places in the Conference, we have taken just six points from five games. That is relegation form. On the other hand, away to teams in the top half of the table, we are unbeaten with four wins and two draws. That form would have us looking down at the rest of the league and already looking up the route maps to Accrington.

Demonstrating we can win, and win well, the 'games we ought to win' are the necessary next step to building on our wins at Wrexham and Torquay – and that starts with Guiseley on Saturday. We may have to do it amid the makings of a crisis in midfield with Danny Parslow recalled by York and Craig Clay and Scott Brown both injured. I guess we could kill two birds with one stone and get "Bish-bash-Bosh" back on loan.