Cod Almighty | Diary

I'm going to the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival and I'm not coming back

26 May 2015

One of the less pleasing aspects of Town's brief hiatus from underachievement under Russell 'Sort It' Slade was watching the skilful but diminutive figure of Andy Parkinson losing out in the air. Parky had been signed to play on the left of the front three in Slade's 3-4-3 'Christmas pudding' formation, receiving channel balls and running at defences – but never really looked comfortable in a 4-4-2. In this his story coincides with that of Paddy McLaughlin, who was released by GTFC last week and now says it was never going to work out for him at Blundell Park once the team switched to a conventional formation.

Many fans (me among them) have pointed out that 4-3-3 has been essentially an aberration committed by multiple Town bosses at the beginning of the season, which costs the team ten or a dozen points before the manager gives up and reverts to 4-4-2. The experience of Parkinson and McLaughlin shows a further cost in wasted years of players' careers. You do wonder just how much success is likely to come the way of a player based in the English lower divisions who can't play in a 4-4-2 – but you have to wish Paddy well, don't you? I liked his style and he's young enough to achieve much more.

Perhaps, like Andi Thanoj before him, McLaughlin's chances at BP were also limited by the enduring aceness of Craig Disley. Your original/regular Diary fondly imagined that, his emergence managed wisely, Thanoj would prove a timely successor to in Town's engine room once the Dizzer's time seemed to be running out. Two or three years on from that imagined handover, the young pretenders having come and gone, our sexy ginger rascal is still pulling the strings in the centre of the park. And it'll be with some delight that Town fans greet today's news that Disley, now approaching 34, has signed a new contract to keep him with the Mariners for a fifth season. Hey, it's probably as close as we'll ever get to a new John McDermott.

So if other key players follow Craig's lead – despite the likely attentions of clubs who may be placed higher in the league system but haven't noticeably rocked Wembley to its foundations with an awesome fish chant – who'll they be wetting their whistle against come pre-season? In 43 days' time our heroes will make the long journey to Cleethorpes Town (that's Wednesday 8 July to you and me), travelling on to North Ferriby United on Saturday 11 July. Then it's at home to second-flight Huddersfield Town on Tuesday 21 July, and to Notts County, freshly relegated to the fourth division, on Saturday 25 July.

No, we haven't made a new page for the 2015-16 season yet. Like the players, we need a rest from the football as well. I'll read about the Mariners Trust's Operation Promotion campaign in a few days' time.