Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 15 June 2006

15 June 2006

Hello, and welcome from me, Capital Diary. As the eyes of the rest of the English nation this morning scoured the internet for news of Rooney's foot, those of a Mariners persuasion sat restlessly awaiting news too. Following a typical advert for the club's text service an announcement late last night on the official website stated that there would be news this morning of a second Grimsby signing. And we weren't to be disappointed. I can exclusively report that at 9:56am I received a text message confirming that, following Gary Croft's lead, Justin Whittle, Shearer-Slayer, has penned a new contract with the club, tying him down for another year. Good news, everyone.

Further good news comes from the mouth of Grodger's first signee, Crofty. In an interview with the local rag he makes all the right noises about next season, both personally and from a club's point of view. He's very positive about Grodger's appointment, which is good news, and reckons we'll see another side to the new boss. I'm not sure many fans will be sympathetic however, when he explains that Slade's failure to sign a new contract was the reason the players were crap on the run-in. Yeah. That'd be it.

And that's about it regarding news concerning the Mariners, I'm afraid. It's a dry old day. Although there is the fact, I guess, that you can watch the England match at McMenemy's tonight while eating "Fresh Grimsby Haddock" (so special it deserves to be capitalised) served with chips and mushy peas for only a fiver. Hmmmm, mushy peas. Oh, and I can just say "Who?"

So with nothing else to tell you about Town I thought I might turn elsewhere. And to begin it appears our near neighbours and perennial play-off drop-outs have appointed a successor to Big Keef. Following our lead they've promoted from within, with first team coach John Schofield being promoted to head coach. They've also brought in a director of football. How very progressive of them.

And speaking of progressive, next up is an excellent demonstration of fan power. Colchester recently announced they'd be playing a pre-season friendly against The Team Formerly Known As Wimbledon. But fans of the U's, not happy with that, decided to make known to the club their disappointment at the arrangement. And such was the volume of displeasure displayed that the club have backed down and cancelled the fixture. Good going all around, I reckon, although perhaps we should question the club for arranging the match in the first place.

And finally, a little quiz for you. In yesterday's coverage of Saudi Arabia v Tunisia it was noted that the Saudi record scorer Sami Al Jaber once played against Grimsby (during his Wolves days). We at CA Towers have spent much of this morning trying to create a definitive list of current World Cup squad members who have done likewise. I think we got to 24 when we stopped. Can you beat that? Mail answers to the Diary at the usual address.