Cod Almighty | Diary

I've gone right off penguins

6 November 2014

Back in the old days – we're talking, oooh, ten or twelve years ago, of course – your original/regular Diary felt far prouder to be a Town fan than I do today. Well, duh, we weren't non-League then. Well, duh, yeah. But this has nothing to do with the triple relegation we have suffered in the interim and everything to do with the way we're perceived by the wider football community. Out there, we used to be admired. Now we're reviled. Why is that?

There's the conduct of some fellow GTFC supporters, of course. Most Town fans are decent folk. But there were some who went crying to the authorities about Darlington signing a player when they supposedly weren't allowed to. There were some who went smashing up Burton, being dicks, and making away games generally unbearable.

But there's also the club is run. We've gone into detail previously about incompetence, so let's hold off on that today. But there was the arrogance and duplicity of the approach to Scott and Hurst. The willingness to reschedule a game to the benefit of Bastard Franchise Scum and the disadvantage of legitimate football clubs. And there's the running up of vast levels of debt to unbalance the playing field in our favour.

Back in the second flight, I used to deeply resent Leicester and whoever for spending more than they had on better players so they could beat us, and then never having to pay it back. So today, if I were Halifax, or any other well-run club positioned third to 24th in the Conference, I'd deeply resent Grimsby too, for precisely the same reasons.

Still, at least Shouty's pay-off was only "tiny". Cheers, John. You're right – there is no certainty going through the courts. That's the thing with a legal process, you see. They listen to both sides and make a judgement based on the available evidence. Rather than taking into account, I don't know, horseboxes or something.

So who's been your player of the season so far? Scott Brown looks like the midfielder we've needed for years. Eleven goals are a delightful new John-Lewis advert. But the cognoscenti have been watching the emergence of Carl Magnay as the best full-back in the Conference and shaking their heads in confusion at Gateshead, who released him on a free last summer. Granted, shaking one's head in confusion at Gateshead is far from an unusual response to any life situation, but Magnay P.I.'s form means he'll be missed big-time with that jarred knee he picked up at Braintree the other night.

Still, we can always sign Danny Parslow again, can't we? LOADSAMONEY!