Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 3 March 2009

3 March 2009

Up the bleedin' Mariners. Are you going tonight? Your returning regular Diary can think of a few things I'd sooner be doing than a 150-mile round trip on a cold winter night to watch Tom Newey take the piss out of me, but it's times like these that sort out the men of faithfulness from the boys who post shit on the Grimsby Telegraph website's comments sections. It's times like these that distinguish, if you will, the true supporter from the screaming twat. I'd sooner go to the pub. I'd sooner stop at home with Mrs Diary and Baby Diary, just so they remember who I am. But it's no good boasting how long you've been going to Blundell Park to try and make a point about why you're staying away now. Because if you turn your back on the team at a time like this then your 10, 20, or 50 years of supporting the Mariners count for nothing. Nothing. Walk away now and you might as well never have bothered supporting the club at all. And if the Diary were to dodge my responsibilities as a fan this evening, not only would I be unable to hold my head up around my fellow Cod Almighty contributors at our next enormous weekend-long piss-up editorial conference - I would also be unable to look myself in the face and call myself a true Grimsby Town supporter. Besides, I'm really gagging for a butty from Sue's chippy.

Dean Sinclair, it transpires, will be out tonight after busting his hamstring and returning to his parent club Charlton to seek "medical advise", as Town's superb new official website expertly puts it. His loan isn't over, though, so perhaps he'll be back when he gets a new hamstring; in the meantime Danny Boshell should deputise tonight and have a chance to win a new contract and prolong his professional career. Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro could start after emerging in one piece from his sub appearance at Rochdale, and Newey may not be playing after all. Although there's no specific mention of Joe Widdowson's fitness in Mr Re-Newell's natter with the Grimbo Telewag today, the beleaguered Town boss says he has "pretty much a full squad to pick from with the exception of Dean [Sinclair] and Chris Llewellyn". So there you go - if last week's calamity at home to Morecambe was largely down to Newey, Phil Barnes and Straight Peter Bore, then none of them are likely to start the game tonight. You've got no excuse at all!