Cod Almighty | Diary

Spinach pasta with no spinach, please

5 October 2016

So, no pubs left on the Riverhead – just a row of almost new, empty buildings – and the viability of the major commercial centre in the area slips further into darkness and doubt. If only there were some glaringly obvious opportunity to give Grimsby town centre a huge boost with a major leisure and lifestyle project bringing together the local authority with the major local sporting organisation to invest millions in a large building project and then attracting thousands of people with money to spend to the area two or three times a month.

Your original/regular Diary was thoroughly heartened last night to see the fruits of principled, co-ordinated and extensive action by Town fans against the threat of Premier League interference in Football League competition. The official attendance of 609, we are told, is considerably lower than any other crowd for a first-team fixture in the almost 140-year history of Grimsby Town Football Club. This becomes all the more pleasing when you learn that the owner of the company sponsoring what remains of the Football League Trophy rocked up at Blundell Park to witness first-hand the car crash that he's put his name to.

Moustache-twirling villain Shaun Harvey continues to either mislead fans or delude himself (or possibly both) about his ill-starred kowtowing to Premier League bastards. Any chief executive who in any way deserved that position would have admitted by now that their badly intentioned meddling had been seen by fans for what it was, promised to take on board their concerns and listen more closely in future to the people who the game is actually for. Harvey, though, appears intent on meeting disaster with denial. Apparently it's all our fault because we don't understand. Now where have we heard that before?

On the pitch Paul Hurst fielded what was almost entirely a second-string XI (the unspecified "illness" that ruled out Omar Bogle presumably being no more than a fabrication to avoid the £5k fine for fielding entirely a second-string XI). One exception, unfortunately, was in the goalkeeping position, as loanee Dean Henderson was away with the England under-20s at the exact moment James McKeown decided to get sent off for handling outside the box.

I say "unfortunately", but we all know an outfield player going in goal is one of those sights that induce disproportionate delight in football fans, possibly exceeded only by a 22-player punch-up and a dog on the pitch. By all accounts (which obviously isn't many), Shaun Pearson acquitted himself well between the sticks. My word – is it really 21 years since the debut of Nicky Southall? Town signing players from Hartlepool. Those were the days.

Credit where it's due, meanwhile, to the Grimsby Telegraph for a notably more critical, fan-centred perspective on the Trophy this week. Another interesting Telewag item published yesterday reports the bankruptcy of one-time King$ton Communication$ FC frontman Dean Windass. You'll remember Windass having applied for the GTFC manager's job on one of the 1,409 occasions it became vacant during the early 21st century. Intriguingly, the GT says Windass was at one point offered a player-management role at Town but turned it down. You thought there was nothing worse than relegation from the Football League? Imagine relegation from the Football League masterminded by Dean Windass.

And finally, scientists believe cod migrating to colder waters because of climate change may have trouble attracting a mate because the local talent can't understand their accent. We know all about that, eh, Grimbarians? See yers.