Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 14 June 2007

14 June 2007

The Mariners will begin next season at home to Notts County on 11 August and will end it away at Hereford on 3 May. In between, despite several opponents in fairly close proximity, Town have once again been handed a fixture list devoid of anything approaching a bank holiday derby. The closest local knees-up to a holiday throughout the 2007-08 campaign will be the visit of Lincoln in what seems to be a new customary slot between Christmas and New Year but not on Boxing Day (this time on Saturday 29 December) - and, as was the case last season, there will be no football at all on the August bank holiday Monday, local or otherwise. It appears that, for GTFC at least, the holiday derby, like standing in the top two divisions, has become a thing of the past for the simple reason that absolutely nobody in football wants it except the fans.

John Ide has emailed the Diary with a great idea. "Just had a thought seeing as it's Fathers' Day on Sunday," he writes. "Why not get all the offspring to buy Dad a season ticket to see the mighties storm the fourth division next season?" And on the subject of season ticket sales it is three days since the Diary last updated you, which seems extraordinarily remiss of me given the general dearth of news emanating from DN35 this week. On Monday, you will doubtless recall, we discovered that the Mariners had shifted 2,000 of the things, raising £360,000 in the process. Since then the figures have risen to 2,200 and £375,000 respectively, reports the club's official website, which equates to 200 more season tickets bringing in £15,000. As any fool knows, £15,000 divided by 200 makes only £75, so perhaps the staff at Blundell Park have been selling season tickets to both offspring and Dad at the children's rate.

And finally today - and finally from me this week, before Guest Diary rolls back into town for his traditional Friday slot - Town's premium subscription service Mariners World today promises a tub-thumping interview with assistant manager Stuart Watkiss. We Fear Nobody! reads the headline; under it, on the home page of the club's official website, appear the words "Stu says that the Mariners fear nobody and he thinks that his side can beat anyone on the day". Suitably inspired by Watkiss's fighting talk, pumped-up, and filled with confidence for the future direction of the club, MW subscribers click on the link and are greeted with the message "Error. The page you are trying to reach may have expired, or been moved. If you have followed a link from your bookmarks, please relocate the page and remember to update your bookmarks."