Cod Almighty | Diary
Don't think I'll be bringing in all this nonsense, fannying around at the back, it's not about that
31 January 2020
It can't be January still, surely? Sorry to peddle a tired old trope, but this month really is a drag. Someone needs to end it — by tonight, ideally. And get Brexit done while you’re at it, eh? This is the UK, for UK people! It's not a place for Swedish centre backs or Irish strikers. And what does Elliot Grandin think he's doing? Coming over here, all French, trying to improve our team with his ability to offer some natural width. We were quite happy with our narrow and largely immobile midfield, thank you very much!
Naturally, any transfer business Ian Holloway does today will happen once this diary goes live. I think it's largely accepted, at time of writing, that Grandin will sign at some point today. What's less clear is whether Ethan Robson will return for a second spell. Given the injury to Hess, it makes sense that it's an avenue Ollie is pursuing.
In terms of football, January has been pretty good to us. Under the management of Ollie, we've picked up 10 points from six games — or seven from five, if you want to (rightly) award the win over Salford to Anthony Limbrick and Ben Davies.
As Daubney Diary mentioned yesterday, coach Davies has registered as a player. Outrageously, not one person on the Fishy has yet suggested his legs have gone, even though he’s eight years beyond the age at which most message board nesbits believe they're entitled to question the functionality of a footballer’s two lower limbs.
If we're to stray into the topic of oldest players to play for Town, we'd have to mention the record holder and, therefore, the name of someone who was sacked from their TV punditry job two years ago for beating up his girlfriend. And we'd rather not waste words on a violent thug. That’s another part of Town's history we'd rather forget.
One memory we all cherish is our play-off final win over tomorrow's opponents, Forest Green Rovers. Your West Yorkshire Diary often tells anyone who'll listen that Nathan Arnold's goal was one of the best moments of my Grimsby-supporting life, and it didn't matter that it came in the fifth tier of English football in a stadium that was only a quarter full against a village side. The goal sealed promotion in an instant, removing any last-minute doubts or nerves and I can't imagine me celebrating a goal any more vociferously at any higher level of the game.
We didn't fare so well against the Green last season. After losing 4-1 at home on the opening day, we then got soundly beaten 3-0 at their gaff in the January, causing a lot of fans to question, maybe for the first time, whether Michael Jolley was actually making any progress.
Town are on a three-game losing streak against Rovers, so that needs to end. Our visitors tomorrow are not in great form — and with Town fresh from a midweek win against a stonkingly unlikeable Stevenage, you'd like to think we have a good chance to collect the three points. But that's to overlook one key feature of tomorrow's fixture…
The referee will be Paul Marsden — an official who was described as 'dangerous' by Mr Butcher when he last took charge of a Town game at Blundell Park. That wasn’t the only negative word he used in the match report from our home defeat to Mansfield earlier this season — others were 'inadequate', 'imbecile', 'numptiness', 'disaster', 'bizarre', 'appalling', 'rotten' and, most tellingly, 'resign'. "He was a slither away from inciting a riot", Mr Butcher adds.
On Tuesday night we proved we can win despite refereeing inadequacy. Let's hope the team can take Marsden out of the equation by beating Cooper's cronies by simply being the better side. If you're going, enjoy the match and UTMM!