Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 3 October 2012

3 October 2012

It's the club record that slipped under the radar on Saturday... and Sunday... and Monday... until someone at the Telegraph got wind of it - probably from a messageboard or social network - and ran the story on Tuesday about us being really great away from home. That's 12 games unbeaten (albeit 10 of those draws), which has set a club record. It's just one defeat in our last 22 away games in all competitions if you care to research even further back. In fact, if we avoid defeat at Alfreton next Tuesday and AFC Telford a week on Saturday then we'll have gone a whole calendar year with just one defeat on the road.

Now, call your West Yorkshire Diary old-fashioned, but when a record like that is set I expect to hear from those who masterminded it. you know, the managers, or a couple of players, basically anyone who is in a position to explain why it's happened and what made it happen. Instead we got to hear about our non-chairman's underpants, as yesterday's Diary alluded to. That's top notch investigative journalism right there, ladies and gentlemen. A quarter of that article was about the club record and three quarters of it was entirely redundant chaff from someone on the periphery of the success.

Of course, I remember the glory days back in the second division when going just two consecutive away games without defeat was regarded as success.

Every once in a while football throws up curious tales of coincidences, and today is one of those tales. If Andi Thanoj is indeed selected to represent Albania at under-21 level then it is very likely that he will face Aswad Thomas, his current teammate at Town - and housemate, it turns out. Thomas will likely be playing left-back for England C in what will be his second appearance for the Three Lions. After yesterday's Diary wished to avoid patronising Andi or Albania in any way, I still find it amazing that a footballer can justify his international credentials to his country by showing them DVDs of his performances because he's not currently playing for his domestic club (and I guess Albania's scouting network can't stretch to justify paying for frivolous trips to Grimsby).

For those of you who aren't interested in European club football and would prefer to support your local club ahead of the plastic teams that compete in a competition so pretentious that it has its own classical anthem [draws breath], you can pop down to Blundell Park tonight to see Town's youth team take on Yorkshire Amateur in a cup fixture. Four players face fitness tests, including the gloriously named Blaize Kerr and Ellis Humble. The NSNOS tells us that the yoofs gained a "respectable 2-2 draw" against Hull at the weekend, and mentioned that the team is mid-table. There is no league table on display, and no obvious link to a league table. Here is a link to the youth team's fixtures for 2012-13 but good luck finding a league table.

A footnote in today's Mansfield Chad reports that Alfreton are expecting their biggest attendance of the season when they host the Mariners next Tuesday. The crowd will be segregated and Town fans should enter via the Alma Street turnstiles. The article also explains how "ultra reliable" Alfreton midfielder Anton Brown's calf went "pop".