Cod Almighty | Diary

Keeping it all in

30 April 2019

So, what did you make of last Saturday? Your original/regular Diary sort of understands that we lost away at Notts County, but on my habitual trawl of the #GTFC hashtag it was a job finding out what was going on at Meadow Lane for all the gleeful tweeting about events at Glanford Park.

I'd be quietly pleased if Scunthorpe were to go down – but not because they're from a similar town to us just down the road, which makes absolutely no sense at all. No, I'd be grinning at the sweet and fitting payback for some particularly stupid managerial changes.

It was bad enough West Bromwich Albion chucking out Darren Moore for only being in the play-off places in the second division (perhaps naively, I always thought WBA were better than that), but Scunthorpe United are not West Bromwich Albion. No, if they land on their arse, it'll be just deserts for expecting Graham Alexander to attain automatic promotion to the second division at a club with stubbornly fourth-division attendances. And then sacking his successor after five minutes in charge because they were 'only' mid-table.

For similar reasons, I'm still laughing at Hartlepool ending up in non-League after sacking Neale Cooper in 2012 because they were 'only' mid-table in the third division. You're fucking Hartlepool, you dickheads. Mid-table in the third division is as good as it will ever get.

Predictably, Town's recent lean spell has prompted renewed calls for the head of Michael Jolley – but as these appear to issue from 15-year-old hooligan wannabes and men with lumpy purple heads who wanted Alan Buckley sacked when we were two divisions higher, we can safely ignore them both. On a similar tack, two players Jolley has allowed to leave have prospered away from Blundell Park this season – but even the manager's most strident detractors would hesitate to beat him with a stick made from JJ Hooper and Nathan Clarke.

Hooper, the latest of many black players coincidentally branded "lazy" by Grimsby fans, struggled to make an impact at BP under either Jolley or Russell Slade but has racked up 14 goals in 22 games for loan club Bromley. At the age of 35 Clarke, meanwhile, has enjoyed a Paul Grovesian year over at his hometown club Halifax Town, playing every minute of every game – the only player in the Conference Premier to have done so this season.

Not that I'm saying Hooper hasn't "found his level", or that we should have kept Clarke on. The latter's form improved in last season's run-in as we escaped relegation, but GTFC fans are right on this one – it was always a travesty to have signed him ahead of keeping Shaun Pearson.

In recent years, of course, many players have left our club who should never, ever have been allowed to, and you won't need me to remind you about the likes of Arnold, Nolan, Bogle, Amond, and Andy Cook. There are also players who've passed through on their way to greater things, and hearty congratulations are due to Dean Henderson on playing a big part in the Sheffield United side that's just achieved promotion to the top division.

We'll find out soon whether James McKeown sees off the challenge of Luke Hendrie and Jake Hessenthaler to be named player of the year for 2019–20. But in a few years' time, when Henderson has become immovable in the number 1 slot for England and, say, Paris St Germain, Jimmy Mac will always have the accolade of having kept him out of the Grimsby team for half a season.