Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 27 February 2012

27 February 2012

Miss Guest Diary writes: I have to confess that I feel slightly pleased about the outcome of Saturday's game against York. Of course, I didn't actually like seeing Town lose. But the game itself was entertaining and the goal came near enough to the end not to spoil that too much. And, to be honest, York are a really good footballing side and probably deserved the victory. But I didn't mind losing because I find this whole FA Trophy competition annoying and something I think we could do without.

Having a second competition (on top of the FA Cup) where the rounds are scheduled for Saturdays means any progress results in lots of Saturday games rearranged for Tuesday evenings - as has now happened for Town. For one thing, this has caused a big fixture jam in March. For another, if, like me, you make a general plan for the season when the fixture list comes out, it can cause havoc with your social life. Being knocked out prevents any further fixture disruption, which can only be a good thing in my eyes.

And Shorty sort of agreed in his post-match interview on the SNOS. Not about the defeat, obviously, but about the benefits of no more fixture changes: "We know exactly where we are now, when games are gonna be." He manfully resisted going too far down the football cliché route of saying they'll be concentrating on the league, merely mumbling the words "league" and "focus" before moving swiftly on.

I did feel a small pang about going out of the trophy when I saw that Wealdstone are one of the semi-finalists. Since I learned a couple of months ago that ex-GTFC man Wes Parker is the club captain, I have been keeping an eye out in the hope that Town might be drawn against them. In the late 90s my partner and I began several years of shirt sponsorship for various Town players, usually the younger members of the squad. We eventually stopped because we felt we were jinxing their careers: none of the players we sponsored ever made it as regular Town players.

We sponsored Wes in the 2003-04 season, after which he left the club. I seem to recall talk of a health issue which meant he might not play again, so I was really pleased to come across him on Twitter the other month. He is now an accountant as well as playing semi-pro at Wealdstone. I have no idea what happened to most of the other players we sponsored, but I can advise that the shirts are all still going strong and being worn on a weekly basis by the Welton Mariners in a Lincoln six-a-side league.

The Grimsby Telegraph reports that Frankie Artus's injury is not as bad as first feared and he may be back in a couple of weeks. As well as making me shudder, the description of him "hyper-extending his knee" did put me in mind of Twizzle, a TV show I watched as a young child.

And finally, good luck to Michael Coulson on his call-up to the England C squad for the game against Italy tomorrow. I hope for his sake he gets into the starting eleven, but I hope for Town's sake that he doesn't get clobbered by any hulking defenders. Ciao.