Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 23 February 2006
23 February 2006
Town reserves sprang a surprise at Lincoln yesterday afternoon, not only by claiming their third point of the season in a 3-3 draw but by chucking in a couple of sneaky second division trialists. Kyle Matthews is an 18-year-old forward from Watford with a long neck and no squad number, while James Graham has arrived from Leicester and is listed by Wikipedia as a forward, while the Mariners' official site says he's a midfielder but had to play in defence yesterday. In this case I don't know which site is less unreliable. The OS reports that the stiffs' goals came from Matthews, Nick Hegarty and Jermaine Palmer (penno), and that Glen Downey was sent off, while the Lincolnshire Echo begs to differ, insisting that Danny North scored one and that it was Ben Higgins who received the red card. In this case I don't know for sure which site is less unreliable, but I could hazard a pretty good guess.
Oooh, I'm all confused now. Let's talk about something else. Where's my dinner? The OS has an injury update for us today, but it tells you even less than the Grimsby Telegraph's injury update told us yesterday: Macca, Whittle, Goodfellow back in training, might play on Saturday, might not, what are you looking at me for anyway. We do learn, however, that Andy Parkinson and Paul Bolland are missing training today "because of personal reasons", Parky presumably being upset about Mariners World having displayed the word 'Disappointment' under his photograph for most of yesterday.
Mr Shim Russell Sort It Sladey has issued what is traditionally known to all major carbon-based life forms as a rallying cry ahead of this Saturday's game against Chester. "The crowd can play a massive part for us at Blundell Park," says the man on the edge of a nervous breakdown. "We saw that against Boston when they got behind us after the second half." He is right, of course, and one can understand the manager's anxiety for the crowd to play the role of an extra man with so many key players injured and suspended this Saturday. If not quite a must-win match, the visit from the Deviants is certainly a could-really-do-with-winning-if-at-all-possible game.
The Deviants? Yes, says James Booth in an email to the Diary, "apparently the Deviants were/are a band" - and he's even showing us a website to prove it. Also on the subject of a nickname for Chester, Eve Barnard asks: "May I suggest the Draws - as in the Chester Draws? Well, it made me laugh. Small things etc." You must find Andy Parkinson hysterical, Eve. Let us all bow down to Mike Worden, though, who explains: "Chester do indeed have a nickname: the Seals. Presumably it is something to do with Sealand Road, where they used to play, rather than any connection with the animal. It's like calling us the 'Bluns', I suppose. The Seals name is hardly ever used but the newish road which runs through the soulless retail park that stands on the site of the old ground is called Old Seals Way. Chester have had previous nicknames related to which colours they wore. For example, in the 1920s, they played in black and white stripes and called themselves the Magpies." I am very grateful, Mike, for what is possibly the most informative bit of correspondence in the entire three-and-a-bit-year history of the Diary. I am a bit less grateful that you've ended a discussion that's generated more email than anything else we've talked about for ages - but truth is the Diary's highest pursuit, and so there it rests.
That's all for the week from your regular high pursuer of truth, then, so thanks for reading and stick around tomorrow, when one of Cod Almighty's geographically disparate team of guest diarists will hopefully be here to tell you that Macca, Whittle and even Fridge Goodfellow will be on hand to club the Seals this Saturday. Ta-ta!