Cod Almighty | Diary

We dollhouse monsters dine on disco balls and starfish

28 January 2019

Trentside Diary writes: Consider that bus parked! Not any old bus but a weighty Grimsby and Cleethorpes Transport double-decker. Saturday was very impressive. For ten men to hold a one-nil lead for the full second half was a lesson in organisation and resilience. Mr Jolley can take great credit for this performance and the team he is building. He is bringing together a team and they obviously listen to him.

It’s always a pleasure to get one over the Franchise Scum and to be honest, on Saturday, they really didn’t have much to offer. It makes me realise what a tight league this is this year. When we played Coventry, Plymouth and Portsmouth in the last couple of seasons you could see that they were a class above. With Lincoln last week and now Franchise Scum, neither looked anything special.

When you play clubs at the top of the table, you get a lesson on how far you still have to go before you can be serious contenders for promotion. Looking at these two matches we are well on the way. Yes, Lincoln scored a goal against us but on the pitch they are no class apart.

A question for you. What do Notts County and Macclesfield have in common? No, not that they are holding up the Football League but the snake that is Sol Campbell. It’s nearly a year since he was accusing Grimsby of not being interested in him because he lacked experience. Maybe being one of "the greatest minds in football", to use his own words, means that you don’t have to put yourself out too much and actually make an application. He was also greedy enough to chase a big payday at Notts County but not sharp enough to realise it was all too good to be true.

So let’s see where the season ends for both clubs. I raise this because the Silkmen didn’t manage to emulate Town at the weekend. They lost a two-goal lead to eventually lose 3-2 to Cheltenham. I mean Cheltenham – it’s not even a proper footballing town. Having looked like they were beginning to pick up, was that the end of the new manager boost?

Notts County, meanwhile, were all over social media at the weekend. Their chairman seems particularly inept when dealing with others. Last season County had a couple of decent loanees from Forest and finished in the play-off places. Various comments by the chairman meant Forest moved the loanees elsewhere. Then to cap it all, he mistakenly posted inappropriate photos of himself in a tweet. Since then he’s deleted his Twitter account and put the club up for sale. County are now looking very vulnerable and you really can’t see where rescue will come from.

Looking at other lower-league clubs, I am happy with our smart, young manager. He appears professional, he seems to understand his team and he's starting to get the best from them. The players he has brought in are looking good and if we give him time to build, the Mariners are in a very good place. UTM!