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Diary - Tuesday 7 March 2006

7 March 2006

Town fans wondering what the name of Rob Murray has been doing on lists of substitutes and reserve teamsheets in recent weeks are guided to a page that has just popped up on the club's official website and waxes into magnificent detail about the injury apparently suffered by GTFC's second-choice keeper John Lukic at some indeterminate point before Christmas. Lukic, explains the OS, is undergoing treatment for a tear to something called a rotator cuff, which "is a confluence of tendons that insert on the superior lateral aspect of the upper arm. The tendons are what permit the shoulder muscles (subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor) to attach to bone, and therefore raise and lower the arm, and rotate it in and out." The club's assistant manager Graham Rodger is "in regular contact with Lukic", adds the site - which is nice - before pointing out: "Contrary to reports, the cost of the operation will be met by Grimsby Town Football Club." Which is also nice. The Diary cannot claim to have encountered these reports; nor, however, did I have any idea what was happening to Lukic until half an hour ago. This may not be Town's first statement on the matter, but it's the first one I've seen; and if an organisation whose success or failure determines the emotional state of thousands of people is going to make like a Trappist monk, it should not be surprised if one or two 'reports' emerge to fill the silence.

Silence will also be banished from the Mariners' six remaining home games this season if Town and Bill Hammond get their way. The club, you will recall, is trying to get the stadium just over half full with its 'Target 6000' campaign, while Mr Hammond is a fan who is threatening to annoy the hell out of his neighbours at the ground by making his kids play a drum and a bugle. "I sit in the [Lower Beer Stand] and I am putting down a challenge for the supporters from the other stands for the remaining fixtures of the season," growls Bill. "I am going to lead the singing in the [Lower Beer Stand] like it has never been heard before," he explains, concluding with the aforementioned blood-curdling progeny/musical instrument threat. GTFC have encouraged the challenge enthusiastically, making up quotes from 'anonymous' Pontoon and Main Stand supporters and Russell Slade, while Telewag sports ed Geoff Ford makes a good point about music over the PA killing the atmos. It all seems like good clean fun to the Diary - as long as it doesn't get so loud that I can't concentrate on getting the morning papers read by half time.

Speaking of Target 6000, the Diary has realised that yesterday's round-up failed to even half-fill you in on the voucher system Mariners bosses have devised to half-fill the ground. Step carefully through an orgy of bad punctuation and you will learn that the club has run off 25,000 vouchers (for which, read flyers) to distribute to schools and businesses promoting a 'four tickets for 20 quid' offer. Well, you didn't think the whole campaign would consist of Tony Richardson saying: "Oh, go on - please come!", did you?

Just when you and 5,999 others thought it was safe to go back to Blundell Park, an important development has emerged on Town's proposed new ground which ought to give fans a say on how the Fentydome turns out. An exclusive on CA's fellow unofficial Mariners website 3 Fish on our Shirt reveals that Dave Otter of Grimsby Town Supporters Trust "has been invited to join the 'Gateway Group', which was formed recently in order to help turn the dream of a new stadium at Great Coates into a reality". The Diary hopes that having the chairman of their trust on the group will give supporters an opportunity to pass their observations and suggestions about the stadium to the people who are most closely involved in its planning and design.

Lastly today, apologies to any Diary readers who have emailed in the last few days and not had their efforts paraded gloriously across this page for the other eleven or twelve to enjoy. Sorry. The email's up the spout. If you want to communicate, best use the feedback form until our incredibly reliable and helpful ISP rectifies the problem, which I'm sure won't take long at all, because they're so ace. Cheers!