Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 18 May 2006

18 May 2006

You want the good news or the bad? Here's the good: Town have been given nearly 25,000 tickets for the fourth division play-off final a week on Sunday, which is thousands less than we took to Wembley for the Auto Windscreens final in 1998 but is still loads. Here's the bad: two thirds of them will cost £30 or more. The spin being put on the pricing policy for the match is that tickets "start at £20", but the cold, hard facts are that only 8,000 are available at this price, with a further 8,000 tagged at 30 quid and the rest at a Chelsea-esque 40 and 50. Here's a bit more good, though: under-16s and over-65s pay half the above prices and, if the Diary has read the official website right, you'll be able to buy tickets online from Saturday. What do you mean you don't trust the OS to get your order right and they'll probably send you 112 tins of white emulsion instead?

Another vexed issue surrounding the voyage to Cardiff is, of course, that of transportation. Those wishing to minimise the environmental impact of the play-off final by leaving their cars at home will be taking the 20:35 Transpennine Express from Grimsby Town the night before and changing at Sheffield and Newport to arrive Cardiff Central 13:43 - a full hour and a quarter before kick off - with a tranquil night's sleep on a bench at Sheffield station into the bargain. There is a page on the Mariners' official website headlined Coaches To Cardiff, but at the time of writing it has only a tiny photograph of one solitary coach, and no text at all. Still, there's a week and a half to put it right yet.

"I didn't get to Sincil Bank," writes Sibbo in an email to the Diary, "but watched last Sat's game on TV in my local pub. Behind a post at the bar, just to add authenticity. It made a nice change to be able to see replays of incidents during the game and I thought Town gave as good as they got. Ah yes, the first Lincoln 'goal'. I immediately thought Shrewsbury. Some you win some you lose, eh." Well, yeah - they say these things balance out over the course of a season, and it's not our fault if the balancing out goes in Town's favour during the play-offs. "Going on to Fen Butcher, I think it's a little harsh to always compare him to his dad. There will probably never be a better footballing centre-half to appear in a Town shirt and Ben has to make his mark in his own right. Time will tell, but I believe we may see him win over the fans as did Rob Jones." If we do, Sib, he's gone the right way about it in the past five days. "Oh, before I forget... see you at Cardiff." As long as I can afford a ticket and find a way to get there, mate...

So that's all from your great-tasting regular Diary for another week, but before I go there's just time to report that Town have apparently been given the 'unlucky' southern end of the Millennium Stadium. Are the seats green or something?