Cod Almighty | Diary

Mentality or just mental

29 January 2015

Your London Diary here on a cold Thursday in England's second most important town.

Been a nice old week so far if you're a Town fan. Decent win at the weekend. A few good signings to bolster the squad. A gritty win against fellow promotion contenders. Free pies and pints for away fans. And news this morning that the lad everyone is raving about wants to stay for a while. Palmer, the young lad who looks a lot older than he is, has come out and said: "I'm in a winning changing room and I want to stay in a winning changing room. We'll see how things go – there's a few parties involved so we'll have to see. Hopefully it can all be sorted out that I can stay – make no bones about it, I'm enjoying it and I want to be involved in the push."

I like the way that he talks about a winning changing room; there's been a fair amount of scepticism about the mentality of the various Grimsby Town teams that have played for us over the last 10 years. I could certainly point the finger at a few players in the past who looked like they didn't give two turds about who they were playing for, just as long as they could pay for their BMW 3 series (Conlon, Butler, Peacock, to name but a few), slowly sliding down the league like the worst snakes and ladders player known to humanity.

Since the arrival of Shorty and Shouty and now Hurstststs I certainly have noticed a change in player attitudes at Blundell Park. It started with players who were hungry to climb the leagues as opposed to sit on a cheque, the likes of Pearson, McKeown, Hearn and Disley all seemingly hungry and wanting to get out of this league as much as the supporters who have sat in the same seats for 20-odd years. Players who have played in lower leagues and want to climb higher, players who have tasted promotion and want another bite.

I genuinely think that all the players we have in the current squad (aside from people on leave) step on to the pitch and want three points every single game. Sometimes they do it, sometimes they don't. I sincerely hope that having Palmer and Jolley will ensure we get them.

Some people don't believe Hurststs will get us out of this league, but I think he will. Sure, I'm young and naive, but he's offered us more stability than at any time since, say, the Russell Slade days. He's building a squad with the limited funds he has. He's bringing in players who are hungry, and he hasn't thrown a chair at the chairman. I have it on good authority that most of the players who sign for Grimsby at the moment do because they want to be part of the squad and also because of the manager.

He's not shouty, no, he's shorty and I like him. I'm a dreamer. UTM.