Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 25 May 2006

25 May 2006

If cats could talk to each other, what would they say about us? The Diary has often passed an entire morning contemplating this matter, interrupted only by a frenzy of hungry clawing at my legs. Today, as a dutiful Mariners supporter, I have been more concerned with what Cheltenham Town are saying about us, and their quite long-serving captain John 'Cousin of Judy' Finnigan is the first to have broken the silence. While other observers have been tipping GTFC to get the better of the Robins this Sunday on account of having taken six points of them in the league this season, Finnigan believes, for reasons possibly connected with the positions of the moon and the stars, that the Mariners' superior record somehow makes them less likely to prevail in Cardiff. "Can they beat us three times in one season?" the Cheltenham midfielder wonders aloud to the Teamtalk website. "It's always difficult to do that." When they've already beaten you twice, though, John, they only need to beat you once more, which is three times less difficult.

The Grimsby Reaper has struck again and Hoof Alexander's reign as manager of Lincoln has come to an end in the wake of the Imps' defeat against Town in the play-off semi-finals. Alexander is, of course, far from the first manager to have had his head neatly severed by the Reaper's keen blade immediately following a spill against the Mariners - in this he sits in the exalted company of Steve Bruce, Gordon Strachan and George Burley - but cast back your mind to the 3-0 win over Lincoln just after Christmas. Following this match Hoof was temporarily placed "on leave" at Sincil Bank, which would appear to make him the first professional football manager ever to have been Reapered twice. The pain freaks of Peterborough are already thought to be reviving their interest in route one, while an unofficial Lincoln site, interestingly, reckons the fans' choice to replace Big Hoof might be Cheltenham manager (and former Town forward) John Ward.

GTFC have now shifted a slightly less embarrassing 12,000 tickets for Sunday's fizzy drink marketing convention in Cardiff, with the club's official website insisting that the final figure could reach 15,000. To address the demand, the club shop is staying open until eight o'clock tonight and tomorrow night. If enough people are interested, they might even open on Saturday as well!

That's all from me until south Wales, then, as tomorrow you will be delivered unto the weekend by the safe hands of Guest Diary. I leave you with the news that after Town's sensational cup victory against Tottenham earlier this season, the club's sponsor Young's was seriously considering an advertising campaign based on the slogan "Who Is The Big Fish Now?" Let's inflate that haddock again on Sunday, eh.