Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 4 November 2002

4 November 2002

A buoyant Paul Groves has called on his players to show the same spirit that inspired Saturday's awesome display against Gillingham in this weekend's visit to Stoke. "We are getting better with each game," says the player-manager in today's Grimsby Telegraph. "We've taken some big strides forward and that's got to continue. We need to take that into the Stoke game." Victory at the Britannia would lift Town out of the bottom three for the first time all season. Groves also praises the contributions of loan signings Jason Gavin and John Oster, whose goal capped a tremendous all-round display and came close to clinching all three points for the Mariners.

Martin Pringle, who also made a big impression in a loan spell with the Mariners, has been released by his club Charlton. The 31-year-old Swede joined Town last season after lengthy rehabilitation from a broken leg, and early in his second game had it broken again by a savage, two-footed flying kick from Stockport thug Dave Challinor, who was punished with a very stern yellow card. Pringle is seeking another club but continues to train with Charlton in the meantime.

Town's official site has revealed, in the natural course of conversation about a win for the youth team at the weekend, that another trialist has arrived at the club - Nottingham Forest striker Nick Hegartey. Disappointingly for us, though - and presumably for Nick - there is no mention of the player on the Forest website. The only comparably monickered footballer Cod Almighty can find is the e-less Nick Hegarty, scorer of four goals this season for Glasshoughton Welfare in the Northern Under-19 Alliance.

Mariners Net also says GTFC youngsters Paul Fraser and Matthew Stares are trialing for the England under-18 schools team. Whatever that is. Sounds exciting though, doesn't it.

Continuing our habit of ruefully acknowledging goals scored by ex-Mariners, Cod Almighty gives a big shout to Jack Lester, who scored two and was instrumental in a third for Forest in their 3-0 weekend win over Sheffield United. Daryl Clare also struck twice in his debut for Chester City against Yeovil. The second was in the 90th minute and was enough to earn his side a late point. A reluctant nod of the head, too, towards south London and Danny Butternutsquash, who grabbed the winner in Palace's 2-1 win at Ipswich. We've heard it was a screamer of Van Basten-esque proportions from an impossible angle, but without further evidence we cannot believe it was anything more than a mis-hit cross.