Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 19 May 2006
19 May 2006
Hello! It's Regular Diary's day off today, as I'm sure you are aware what with it being Friday and all that. But all our substitute diarists also appear to have taken the day off and it has been left to me, Gambling Diary, to fill you in on the news. I suppose I am always in the CA office on a Friday lunchtime and with no football this weekend I needed something constructive to do. I hate weekends with no football as it means the missus makes me do things like mow the lawn and board the loft instead. But I refuse to go to the depths of watching Watford against Leeds in the Division Two play-off final.
Talking of play-off finals, we now know who we will be facing in the Division 4 final at Cardiff on the 28th - Cheltenham Town, who drew 0-0 with Wycombe last night. That means our victory over Lincoln on Tuesday night remains the only home win from all 12 play-off semi-finals this year, which our resident statistician tells me is the lowest number of home wins in the semi-finals ever, with the previous lowest total being three, back in 2002. This is the same fella who told you that Cheltenham would make the final the other week. He also said we'd get past Lincoln. The lad's good isn't he? Maybe he should do the tips next year because I am having a bit of a bad run of it all at the minute.
Our opponents on the 28th certainly aren't slow off the mark and their official site is already pushing play-off merchandise. No sign of any equivalent commercial nous from Grimsby though. That said, the fans will all just take Harry Haddocks to wave anyway, won't they? I know I will be taking mine. I had one last time I saw us play in a big final. It was the AWS game at Wembley and I traded it for a few beers in the Rat & Parrot in Bayswater after the match. Not sure I would trade my current one for any quantity of Brains though.
While the OS may not be ramming Town-related merchandise down our throats, they are kind enough to tell us a bit more about the tickets for Cardiff. As you know by now we are in the Hyder (who?) South Stand and the club have decided to sell tickets "in a clockwise direction". I am at a loss as to why the seating plan page is named after a classic tragedy about a farmer from Massachusetts by Edith Wharton though.
Which strip did Town wear at Sincil Bank? Yep, the blue one. Lincoln wore their red and white striped home kit. What did the Mariners run out in at Blundell Park? Indeed, the black and white striped home kit. Lincoln wore their red and white striped kit, which the ref was OK with. But the referee for the final need not concern himself with whether the black and white of Grimsby could be confused with the red and white of Cheltenham because it seems that Cheltenham will be wearing a new specially commissioned kit that doesn't clash with our home togs, not that I can find owt about it on their OS. Oh well. I must admit I am pleased that we will be wearing the traditional black and white in Cardiff. But why are Cheltenham pushing a load of red and white merchandise if they won't be wearing those colours on the day? I give up.
I was going to tell you more about what the OS has to tell Mariners fans worldwide but I'm not sure if you really care about the sights of Cardiff or that Matt Le Tissier will be the main attraction at the latest bash at McMenemy's next week. You might care about the Chairman's Challenge game that was due to take place last night but I can't find much on that, other than the fact they have christened Positive John "Chopper" for some reason. If you wish to comment on John Fenty's tackle perhaps you could drop us a line at the usual address.
As it happens, there have been a few interesting emails to the Diary recently. Dan Humphrey wanted to know if there was an archive of our "amazing Cod Almighty front pages". Ah, now you're asking Dan. Apparently there is a folder somewhere with most, if not all, of the old landing pages (as I am reliably informed they are called) in. But there is no way to access this via a browser and there are currently no plans to open this archive up to the masses. So, er, yes there is such an archive but it's not available to anyone except the elves who maintain the CA site. Sorry. Maybe if there is sufficient public demand we can get that vault cracked open so everyone can enjoy its contents.
"Craig Armstrong and Clint Marcelle instead of Tommy Mooney and Kevin Betsy. I'll take that," writes Durham Diary. Too bloody right! Mooney missed some sitters last night apparently, and with them missed the opportunity to score against us at Cardiff, because you know if Wycombe had have got there he'd have bagged at least one, the bugger. DD also asks: "Can we have a Glen Downey T-shirt in time for Cardiff?" It's a good idea but it won't be happening, I'm afraid. You'll have to make do with one of our other designs instead.
And finally, a quick word from our man in charge of T-shirts. Could Edward Marshall please email us because we'd like to speak to him about his order and the email address he supplied when placing the order doesn't work. Ta ta.