Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 23 October 2003

23 October 2003

Hello, I'm the stand-in for the stand-in as it were. I've never actually kept a diary, but tried it out yesterday as an experiment. It went something like - got up, walked dog, played Revolution Blues very loudly twice, surfed the net, chopped logs, counted sheep in a field, watched The Sweeney, lit fire, had tea, put the big light on (aren't the nights drawing in fast?), watched Look North then Chelsea (if Cas is our Gronkjaer, then who is our Makelele?), walked dog again, went to bed. Oh and there was a couple of sherries in there somewhere. So now you know who you're dealing with.

I am not bringing to you breaking news about the futures of Iffy and Daws, because it hasn't broken yet. Groves told the Telegraph that he wants to keep them both, but if you read between the lines I reckon he will have problems persuading the board to stump up for another midfielder to add to our quite large collection. Iffy, on the other hand, may have done enough on Tuesday night to get the nod on another loan deal, or a short term contract to the end of the season. We'll have to wait and see won't we?

Our glorious team sponsors have hit the headlines again this morning. Following their decision to pull out of the railway track mending business, they said "Track renewal does not attract the same reputational problems as maintenance." However it emerged today that Jarvis has been accused of falsifying documents and using ‘incorrect stressing methods'. So if it is all true, this makes Jarvis a weird amalgam of the CIA and the Spanish Inquisition, with a reputation to match. One thing is for sure, I won't be taking the train from Macclesfield to Stoke in the near future. Not that I would have been anyway, thinking about it.

Meanwhile Town's reserves slogged their way north to Hartlepool yesterday only to come home again with a 2-1 defeat. 2-0 down at half time, Town pulled one back through Jevons who hit a 30 yard free kick in by the unguarded near post. He was supposed to cross it, apparently. The mighty Paul Groves took his boots to the game, but I have no word on how, or whether, he actually played. The youth team didn't give up without a fight in their quest for cup glory at Huddersfield, it being 0-0 after extra time had been played. Sadly the Huddersfield keeper brought off enough saves in the subsequent penalty shoot out to earn himself a post match wagon wheel from his manager, leaving the Town string squabbling over some flat Conways pop to drink on the bus home. The final score being 4-2. By the way, wagon wheels aren't smaller than they used to be (urban myth number 97). I saw an interesting programme about it on the telly a while back, which also explained that mars bars are actually bigger these days than when I was a lad.

Those of you who haven't managed to make the last couple of home games may be intrigued by all this talk of the return of match atmosphere to Blundell Park. In the last few seasons it's generally taken the referee to waken the slumbering masses within the Pontoon. Indeed, I have sometimes hoped for a bad decision against Town early on just to get the crowd going a bit. However, Paul Groves' latest master stroke is to whip up support by publicly exhorting the faithful to sing during the game. Rodger(s) pushes him out of the dugout, and Paul starts waving, clapping (and possibly singing), in our direction. It works a treat every time so far, the crowd make loads of noise and we've started winning home games again. I have a sneaky feeling that Graham suggested this idea to his boss, as the dugout has become somewhat crowded since Paul stopped picking himself. Plus he gets to be on the radio more, as Groves has sung his heart out for the lads to the point where he is unable to address the mike after the game. But joking apart, it's much better listening to endless reps of paulgroves'blackandwhitearmy than sacktheboardsacktheboardsacktheboard. What will be embarrassing, however, is the day when Paul asks us for a song, and either doesn't get one, or gets the wrong one, if you know what I mean. But let's hope that's a long way away. I, for one, feel optimistic at the moment. There is an awful lot of dross in Division 2 this year, and the table is starting to shake out quite nicely to support this assertion. That away point at Plymouth we earned is starting to look pretty good, don't you think? See yer.