Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 10 December 2002

10 December 2002

If your mate stole your credit cards and ran up 10 grand of debt, and then felt a bit guilty and bought you a drink, how would you feel? A bit like the Nationwide League, perhaps, which has been 'handed a cash lifeline' by a new £20 million fund set up by the FA, the Premiership and the Football Stadia Improvement Fund to assist struggling clubs. First division clubs could benefit to the tune of £334,000 per year for two years if they can present a viable four-year business plan (sorry, Wednesday) and whistle You Are My Sunshine while standing on one leg. "I believe that football supporters should take great encouragement from the way that football's governing bodies have joined together," says Football League chairman Peter Heard, in between loud coughs.

Town announce a surprise addition to the boardroom in the shape of Brigg-born former Leicester chairman John Elsom. The 63-year-old approached GTFC chairman Peter Furneaux recently with a view to bringing his experience as a member of the FA Board, the International Committee and the Football League Board to bear at Blundell Park; and the confirmation of his appointment will be put to the club's annual general meeting on Thursday week. Town's official site points out that Leicester finished eighth and 10th in the Premiership in Elsom's first two years as chairman, adding with a charming parochial flourish that in his twenties the new director "was renting a house on Brereton Avenue". The Diary notes with interest that Elsom's tenure at Filbert Street was marked by the 'Gang of Four' controversy, whereby an epic boardroom struggle culminated with a cabal of renegade shareholders trying to force him out of the club. Sounds like he's gonna fit right in.

Grimsby reserves battled through arctic conditions at Blundell Park last night to grind out a goalless draw against a Lincoln side featuring former Mariners winger Adam Buckley, whose dad Alan turned up to say hello. Steve Chettle continued his comeback from injury; while American winger-cum-forward Jake Sagare, who has been on trial with the club for 39 years, turned out again in the hope, one presumes, of winning a full-time contract. But are there any more places on the payroll now that planet-straddling man of rock Georges Santos has signed up?

The latest twist in the strange tale of Lee Ashcroft takes him to Huddersfield, where the exasperating former Town forward has signed on a month's loan. Ashcroft joined Alan Buckley's Grimsby in 1998 for a now-incredible £500,000 and left two years later for Wigan, having polarised fans' opinions between 'unlucky with injuries' and 'fat lazy sod'. Unable to trouble the underachieving Latics' teamsheet in the past year or so, Peggy now hopes to follow an indifferent loan period at Port Vale earlier this season with a more successful spell at the McAlpine.

Speak of the devil: another former Mariner, Bolton's 'Nicky' Southall, has rejoined another of his former clubs, Gillingham, no sooner than the Diary revealed his footballing monicker to be false. Leslie, as he was christened, has signed a three-year deal with the Gills, where he originally arrived on a free from us in 1997, after allegedly egging on then Town hero Clive Mendonca to walk out of Blundell Park when his contract expired.