Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 26 April 2006

26 April 2006

Tuesday: no news. Wednesday: Town have won a cup and one of their players is quitting football to become a boxer. It's a mad old world, isn't it?

Here we go then: it's Curtis Woodhouse. The Sheffield Star today corroborates a six-week-old messageboard rumour by reporting that the Yorkshire-born midfielder - who moved to Blundell Park only three months ago - will trade boots for gloves this summer after agreeing a three-year contract with top boxing promoter Frank Warren. After last Friday's eventual close win over Cheltenham, in which the player was presented with a 24-carat golden opportunity to score in front of the Pontoon and directed the ball approximately 18 nautical miles above the crossbar, the Diary, for one, hopes Woody will be able to land punches on chins with somewhat greater accuracy than he can kick a bag of air. Now why didn't Tony Rees and Tommy Watson ever think of this?

Staying with unarmed combat for the moment, Diary readers can always be relied upon to come good when we need to discuss the crucial issues affecting the future of our football club, so many thanks for all your emails about which of Town's former (or indeed current) managers would be the hardest in a fight. Keep them coming and we'll take a look tomorrow.

Today's silver lining is the news that the Mariners' boys became men last night, winning the Midland Floodlit Youth Cup or whatever it's called despite playing more than half the match with ten men. The balance of the competition's final, played away against Walsall, tipped towards the home side after 38 minutes with a red card for Town right-back Luke Mascall (who, perhaps surprisingly, was not one of the several players described as "aggressive" in the squad profiles published on GTFC's official website yesterday). The only goal of the game, however, was registered by Neil Woods' side shortly after the hour when winger Jammal Shahin finished from a Danny North flick-on after captain Ben Higgins' long ball. Nice to see the young 'uns taking a leaf from the seniors' book; and with Town's youth team troubling the trophy cabinet for the first time in years, some of this 2006 vintage should mature into full-bodied first-team quality instead of getting tipped down the sink to Armthorpe Welfare.

Finally today, Town's promotion hopes have risen and fallen many times this season but may ultimately rest on which begins first: the team's journey to Macclesfield this Saturday or the labour of Rob Jones's other half. The Mariners' ace centre-half has been back to his magnificent best in the side's last two or three games but may miss the journey west as his lass is about to become the latest of several Mariners missuses to drop a sprog in recent months. "She'll be told to sit still all day Friday and Saturday!" grins the player-of-the-season-elect in a Mariners World interview, possibly only half joking. "Hopefully it'll come earlier in the week rather than later in the week." Have they never heard of induced birth at Blundell Park? Sort it Sladey!