Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 6 February 2009

6 February 2009

Troy Archibald-Henville. Now you say it. Savour those consonants as they roll around your tongue. If someone's name was a cheese this would not be supermarket mild cheddar. It would be something dear out of Prince Charles's shop. Believe your Guest Diarist, gentle reader: this is the name of a bloke on loan to Exeter City - Town's opponents at Blundell Park tomorrow, frost permitting. And it looks like he will be playing too.

The quite-dear-really for its erratic output Mariners World preview is billed as freeview this week. And we get to hear the disembodied voice of Stuart Watkiss(es) telling us that Town are only better these days because they have better players. Well yes, better than Tomi Ameobi and Malvin Kamara anyway, Stu. While double checking that it was Watkiss(es) who signed that pair on loan in the turbulent month that was last September, I noticed that one Peter Till had publicly advocated Watkiss(es) getting the manager's job. How things have changed, what with us going from 20th in mid-September to 22nd in the table now, and Till - widely believed to be our best player then - drifting off on loan. Now come on: believe. Next season we will be back on Humberside (because we are "promotion material") and poor old Stu will be looking for another contract I expect. Funny old game, eh?

Although he shunned Dale on Mariners World, Mr Re-Newell found time to tell the Telegraph that Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro will not be fit to play tomorrow, and remains a significant doubt for Tuesday's rearranged slog down to Barnet. Those who have taken a polytechnic degree in line-reading-between would say that Newell is planning to chuck Forbes in to replace the 'injured Ivorian' (he's a Frenchman though really, isn't he?), and would be confident enough to assert that ex-skipper Heywood will deputise for the suspended Atkinson.

Whether of course we will actually get a game at all is a moot point. The Blundell Park pitch is not snowy, but very wet with standing water here and there. With a sharpish frost forecast overnight, and the opposition flying up, it is an awkward situation to predict. Let's hope we get a game and the combination of a gaffe-ridden referee and linesman manage to officiate without incident for once in their lives. See yer.