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Diary - Tuesday 28 February 2006

28 February 2006

The delicate blooms of Town's youth team, diligent Diary readers will recall, reached the final of something called the Midland Floodlit Cup earlier this month by beating Cheltenham 2-1 in the semi. Quite how a club whose stadium is so coastal that a ball cleared by Fen Butcher could end up floating in the sea qualifies for a tournament with 'Midland' in the title is an altogether more complicated matter and one we will not pursue further in today's Diary, where we are more concerned with the identity of the teenagers' opponents in the final. This was established last night, reports the Mariners' official website, when the two very much midland sides of Walsall and Hednesford met in the other semi-final and the leather fetishist former employers of Alan Buckley came out on top by three goals to nil. The match will take place at Bescot Stadium, adds the OS, doubling up the final 't', on a date yet to be decided, presumably because half the team have got their mocks and the other half have been grounded by their mums for putting the back window through while practising penalties.

And, well, that's about it today, boys and girls. If the Grimsby Telegraph isn't admitting as much by running a story about how much Michael Reddy would like to score 20 goals this season (answer: "It would be nice"), then it certainly is by supporting it with a piece about Jamie Lawrence joining Worthing. Let us be thankful that Keith Collins has emailed the Diary to tell us that Mariners World has reverted to the GRIMBSY spelling again in its most recent highlights video; and let us shower credit and respect on Richard Ellis of Grimsby, who has commented on a Telewag item about Town's penalty "hoodoo": "There is no hoodoo or jinx, so please stop talking about it. It's all down to a lack of application and poor technique." In an ocean of hyperbole and sloppy thinking, Mr Ellis, you are a life raft of sense and reason.