Captain Haddock here - it's been an odd sort of month and feels like spring, and for once Grimsby Town are neither battling against relegation or floundering towards the play-offs. This mid table mediocrity is quite strange, and for all the years following the Mariners it's not the norm. However, it is rather calming like a packet of diazepam!! I would much rather be in our position than Cheltenham's - lulled into a sense of being far better than they really are by winning the National League last season, and with a bit of luck they can have another go at repeating it.
We have been inconsistent this month, reflected in our mid-table position, but the main issue once again has been the poor standard of refereeing in our last two home games. Nick Kinsley's performance in our match against Wycombe was awful, and allowing the goal while Gavin Gunning was out cold in our penalty area was dangerous and a clear breach of 'his duty of care' under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Then the Football League clearly wanted to endear themselves to us by appointing Hull referee Carl Boyeson for our next home match against Crawley Town, a referee with a lot of previous but at least this time he only sent one of our players off. I can't believe that some supporters on social media are even calling for Marcus Bignot to be sacked - what rubbish, his record this season at least matches Paul Hurst's. He needs time to settle in and develop - Grimsby needs stability not to be turned into an east coast version of Notts County who have had seven managers in the last two seasons. We have what is this seasons main local derby next week at home to Donny - I hope their supporters enjoy their 'cup final' at Blunder Park. Just a slight aside, it's been good to see the away ends throughout League Two filled with Grimsby supporters, but just remember it's really good to see Blunder Park full as well, and the club gets the money!!!
It's not been a particularly glorious month for our neighbours from the other side of the Wolds, after missing out on two Wembley appearances in a week. Even Scunny have been doing their best to blow promotion!
Politics has been moving towards Theresa May triggering 'article 50' and the inevitable decline it will set off, along with the likely beginning of the end of the UK. We had a shocking terrorist attack this week - anyone who sees a driving a car as fast as possible as a legitimate act is mentally disturbed. I found it surprising though how it took May six hours to make a comment!!
Anyway, I can't finish this though without ending on a happy note - Congratulations to non-league Cleethorpes Town beating Bromsgrove over two legs and getting to the final of the FA Vase at Wembley Stadium in May.
UTM
Captain Haddock
Saturday, 25 March 2017
Monday, 27 February 2017
Well my new year's resolution was to write my Captain Haddock column on a monthly basis instead of sporadically, outlining what's going on in the world of politics and sport as normal. However, 'Gin January' got me so here we are near the end of February!
The world of politics, now we have President Trump has gone absolutely bonkers!! I'm standing with Sweden - fake news! Even UK politics doesn't get any better, with control freak Theresa May in charge, and the right wing of the Labour Party continuously trying to undermine Labour at every opportunity. Even though I do believe that Jeremy has shot himself in the foot over Brexit, which is truly the politics of the mad house, whatever the majority of fellow Grimbarians think. I heard that Ukip MEP on the radio the other day, and he was arguing for our fishing industry to come back (didn't like him and it's not just that he's a Yorkie but that certainly doesn't help) and he was demanding a 200 mile limit around the UK - that should take us nearly to Paris!! Once the fishing expertise has gone it'll never come back, there's not enough salty old sea dogs like myself left, and renewables is the future. While I'm writing about Ukip, they have now replaced their Oswald Moseley style fascist leader Nigel Farage with a complete plank! A Walter Mitty character who doesn't seem to understand what facts are - he claimed to have a PhD which turned out to be utter rubbish, and that he played football for Tranmere Rovers which he never did, never mind his Hillsborough lies. Thankfully the good people of Stoke rejected his politics of fascism and hate, but it's a shame the people of Copeland didn't have more sense.
Anyway, football seems to be going the same way as politics with unpredictable results - Grimsby losing 5 - nil at Crewe, a team that had been completely hopeless until they played us, followed by a draw on a ploughed field somewhere in South Wales, on to one of the funniest games I've seen for a long time. However, more importantly an excellent performance from players both new and old culminating in a good 3 - nil victory, never mind the antics of fatty Evans!! We were again brought back down to earth with a bump at Morecambe but at least the scoreline was only 1 - 0. We appear to have swapped our early season form - good away and poor at home, to good at home and poor away. We are clearly at the beginning of the Marcus Bignot revolution.
A big well done to Cleethorpes Town in reaching the semi-final of the FA Vase, and our carrot crunching neighbours from the other side of the wolds making the quarter-finals of the FA Cup - however, I expect Arsenal will put an end to their progress.
UTM,
Captain Haddock
PS - Jeremy Kyle is a twat.
The world of politics, now we have President Trump has gone absolutely bonkers!! I'm standing with Sweden - fake news! Even UK politics doesn't get any better, with control freak Theresa May in charge, and the right wing of the Labour Party continuously trying to undermine Labour at every opportunity. Even though I do believe that Jeremy has shot himself in the foot over Brexit, which is truly the politics of the mad house, whatever the majority of fellow Grimbarians think. I heard that Ukip MEP on the radio the other day, and he was arguing for our fishing industry to come back (didn't like him and it's not just that he's a Yorkie but that certainly doesn't help) and he was demanding a 200 mile limit around the UK - that should take us nearly to Paris!! Once the fishing expertise has gone it'll never come back, there's not enough salty old sea dogs like myself left, and renewables is the future. While I'm writing about Ukip, they have now replaced their Oswald Moseley style fascist leader Nigel Farage with a complete plank! A Walter Mitty character who doesn't seem to understand what facts are - he claimed to have a PhD which turned out to be utter rubbish, and that he played football for Tranmere Rovers which he never did, never mind his Hillsborough lies. Thankfully the good people of Stoke rejected his politics of fascism and hate, but it's a shame the people of Copeland didn't have more sense.
Anyway, football seems to be going the same way as politics with unpredictable results - Grimsby losing 5 - nil at Crewe, a team that had been completely hopeless until they played us, followed by a draw on a ploughed field somewhere in South Wales, on to one of the funniest games I've seen for a long time. However, more importantly an excellent performance from players both new and old culminating in a good 3 - nil victory, never mind the antics of fatty Evans!! We were again brought back down to earth with a bump at Morecambe but at least the scoreline was only 1 - 0. We appear to have swapped our early season form - good away and poor at home, to good at home and poor away. We are clearly at the beginning of the Marcus Bignot revolution.
A big well done to Cleethorpes Town in reaching the semi-final of the FA Vase, and our carrot crunching neighbours from the other side of the wolds making the quarter-finals of the FA Cup - however, I expect Arsenal will put an end to their progress.
UTM,
Captain Haddock
PS - Jeremy Kyle is a twat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)