Cod Almighty | Diary
It is not the accuracy of the facts that needs questioning, but their selection
29 July 2014
First of all, to kill off the mounting rumours, Middle-Aged Diary has been asked to make clear that Mardy Diary is not a pseudonym for John Fenty. Nor has Grimsby Town's major shareholder ever written a diary for Cod Almighty.
The revelation that Fenty has been posting on the Fishy using the name "getyourfactsright" might suggest that Town's social media strategy is written on the back of a postage stamp. However, you don't need paper for an unwritten law, like 'Delay all major announcements until 10 minutes after the Cod Almighty diary has gone live'. Thus it was that soon after Deviant Diary had done its stuff yesterday, we learnt that Craig Clay and Jon-Paul Pittman have signed one-year deals with the club.
Pittman we have already discussed, but Clay, after spells with Chesterfield and York has recently been playing part-time with Worksop and Halifax. That suggests there may be a bit more to come from him than he has displayed so far in his previous appearances. Paul Hurst's own comments suggest that initially at least he will be there to provide competition for places in central midfield. In short, if you were last week daggers drawn because the football club repairman hadn't signed anyone for a couple of weeks and are now brandishing a sword because you don't like who he has signed, put your weapons back in your belt.
Pittman and Clay may feature tonight against a Sunderland "select XI". The word 'select' takes on a particular meaning in football during July. Paul Hurst and Sunderland youth team coach Robbie Stockdale are both saying enough to encourage the Telegraph to try and encourage us to believe that one of the Sunderland players on show may appear on loan for Town. My guess is it will be Adam Johnson, surely modern football's answer to Terry Cooke.