Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 26 March 2009

26 March 2009

Sighs of relief were audible from Town fans, Mike Newell and Jonathan Lund alike this morning as Wayne Henderson agreed to remain at Blundell Park for the rest of the season. Mr Re-Newell's gamble in expelling the Luton Three from the squad, of course, left his squad with only a soon-to-expire loanee in the senior goalkeeping department, but the Preston man has assuaged all fears by extending his stay with the Mariners to cover the seven games remaining before the summer break. Henderson's loan was soon to expire, I mean, not Henderson himself; specialists in cardiology have already ascertained a considerably reduced risk of GTFC custodians suffering heart failure during a match since the departure of Tom Newey. "Wayne will get the football he wants from this deal, while we can also work happily in the knowledge that he'll be available to us at short notice if he's required for senior action back at Deepdale at any point before the end of the season," explains Preston chairman Derek Shaw, making completely sure that everyone's mind is quite thoroughly at rest.

An inexperienced Town reserve team received a sound thumping from their Hartlepool counterparts yesterday afternoon, despite or because of the inclusion of a whopping four trialists. The stiffs went down by three goals to nil at Blundell Park, with goalkeeping coach Steve Croudson, bizarrely, included in the line-up again despite the arrival of Lund, together with erstwhile Bromley and Crawley Town midfielder Ryan Hall, and Jemal Baptiste, Troy Powell and Dominic Rhone of Maidenhead United. It's unclear how accurate an impression the GTFC management would have received of the trialists, though, as Baptiste, Rhone and Powell were playing for Maidenhead reserves away at St Albans City as recently as Monday night. Seems to the Diary that it might be asking a bit much of part-time players to give a good account of themselves less than 48 hours after their previous run-out, but I'm just a fan whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don't let the SNOS be misunderstood.

A heavy defeat for a strangely underperforming team whose manager is left scratching his head and asking: "I am bemused by it because in training on Tuesday the lads were up for it but it just didn't materialise on the night"? Sure sounds familiar, don't it? And Tom Newey wasn't even playing when his new side Rochdale were unexpectedly mullered by Chesterfield last night - clearly supporting Mr Newell's presumed conclusion that his malign influence extends beyond the pitch.

It is on the subject of that former Town left-back that Joe Mooney has emailed the Diary, in fact, asking: "Am I mistaken or was this the season Cod Almighty sponsored Newey in order to break the curse? Citing something along the lines of 'a player so erratic that no performance could be put down to the CA curse' as the reason? You were right, of course: if his performance did alter it could only have been spotted by the most obsessive of Newey enthusiasts. Rather, he was taken out of the first team for the first time in what feels like decades and then subsequently got the sack. Does it count as breaking a jinx if the sponsored man was let go from the club? As with all things Tom Newey, depends on your perspective I suppose." In fact, the intention was to achieve football's first ever ironic sponsorship, but it's true that there seems to have been a curse on the club ever since we sponsored Des Hamilton all those years ago. We still have Hamilton's shirt somewhere, and in a bid to exorcise the hoodoo and lift Town back to the upper divisions the CA team will be performing a ceremonial burning this summer. Watch the website for a live link-up via our Ham-Inflam-Cam.

"On a side note," adds Joe, "in reply to Richard Mills' question from about half a year ago, I'm his cousin John's son, not Mike's." Oooh, it's like Who Do You Think You Are? Be sure to let the Diary know if you both turn out to be descended from Mrs Mangle or something. That's all from your regular Diary this week, then - see you at the Aldershot game, and don't forget Guest Diary is back tomorrow. T'ra!