The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Fish

19 May 2015

Is it just me, or does Will Puddy sound like the name of a hapless mid-ranking accountant in a Charles Dickens novel who can't stop eating between meals?

Good day and welcome to Tuesday with your original/regular Diary. And what's new? The extent to which Town fans are treating the imposter Disaster the same as we would have treated the imposter Triumph, I reckon. Two days on from our failure at the final hurdle, to everyone's surprise, Grimbarians are showing a relative lack of despondency and bitterness. And it's not often you can say that.

Well, we were the third best team in the division, and only two can go up. There were times when it was awful, but it was still the best season in ages. So, thanks to all our fellow GTFC fans who made the second half of it such a blast, and thanks to the Forest Green stewards for starting the whole thing off by fuelling our parochial sense of persecution. Thanks, also, to the players, for being the first set of players since forever who we've really warmed to, and who've unambiguously given it all they could – in short, who've deserved to be called Grimsby players, rather than players who happen to be at Grimsby.

So what's next? For our part, hopefully this 'we go again' buzz will manifest in season ticket sales, renewed positivity come August, and the fish chant running endlessly for about nine months thereafter. And yeah, join the trust while you're at it: pay by standing order and it's ONE POUND A MONTH, and if you can afford the GDP of Equatorial Guinea  for a Wembley ticket, you can afford that, damn it.

For the players, this must be a rotten time. As if losing a massive game that you actually gave a shit about weren't bad enough, you're not sure where your next lasagne's coming from. The likes of Shaun Pearson will be fine, of course, with contract offers presumably raining in from all sides – though even then, tough decisions will have to be taken.

For others, who knows? The Grimsby Telegraph's Matt Dannatt has tweeted that the retained/released list will be announced later today. Right now it's sounding like Nathan Arnold could be demon barbering somewhere else next season, despite parent club Cambridge United having declined to offer a new deal. Boston United, meanwhile, will have landed themselves a very promising right-back indeed when they inevitably reel in Paul Walker, who has already announced his release. Godspeed, young man.

Here at CA, as ever, we'll be ploughing valiantly on through the summer months, attempting to keep you entertained as the wellspring of GTFC news runs drier than a Paul Hurst interview quip, and making mean and hypocritical fun of the Telewag as it attempts to do exactly the same thing. In the next few days the Postbag will be running a post-Wembley special. The Postbag editor tells me "we've had two nice letters already", so if you've anything (nice or otherwise) to add on our experiences in north-west London this weekend past, do pipe up.

 

And finally today, Bristol Rovers have been forced to say sorry for two of their players tweeting a photograph which showed a knob-end touching the Conference play-off winners' trophy. "We apologise unreservedly that this inappropriate image entered the public domain," said the club's media officer. "Matty Taylor should not have been allowed to come into contact with the cup."