Apologies. It has been a while, and I have little doubt that your lives have been empty without me. Still, worse things happen at sea.

I don't like Goole as a place. I don't like Goole fans. And I don't tend to like Goole players. Matt Redmile, Brad Hill and the odd keeper excepted. I do however like the pies at Goole, and this may have clouded my judgement as to quite how unpleasant playing Goole can be. Well, dear viewer, I am here to tell you it can be very unpleasant.

They kicked, they scrapped, they clawed, they may well have punched, and, in the absence of anything resembling a passing bit of skill, they were sent home five goals poorer. Which pleased most of the 300+ who had gathered.

Mick Godber can't stop scoring this season (except at Willenhall, which may yet come back to haunt us), and for the short time Colin Marrison was on the pitch today, he continued where he had left off. But his work for the day was cut premeturely short by a "coming together" of about 20 players midway thru the first half, with Retford already two goals up. Whether or not the ref wasw right to send him off, that no-one from Goole was punished at all was indicative of the refs overall display. I will never condone the treatment handed out to some refs by some fans, and it is unfortunate that in modern football the man in the middle is often the fans' first point of attack. But sometimes they don't do themselves any favours, do they? A twenty man scuffle, with fairly innocuous origins, and Retford pay the price. The balance was redressed midway thru the second half when Goole commited one too many cynical challenges, but weak officials may yet shape our season in a way we can only dread!