Cod Almighty | Diary

The grand tour of Lincolnshire

11 March 2014

How many people have played for Grimsby, Lincoln and Scunthorpe? Your Middle-Aged Diary has thought of and verified Ian Baraclough and Jamie Forrester, but I've not been able to check Mike Czuczman. No doubt there are very many more and no doubt you will tell us about them.

Tonight, at home to Hereford, we are likely to be able to add Andrew Boyce to that number. Indeed, the indecent haste with which he has joined us on a season-long loan from Scunthorpe, whom he only joined from Lincoln in November, suggests he is on some kind of challenge. Instead of drinking a pint in every pub within 100 yards of the town clock in the space of an hour, Boyce aims to appear for every senior Lincolnshire club before he is 25. With Gainsborough Trinity ticked off his list long ago, expect him to start next season at Boston.

Save the Mighty Imps gives a fair indication of Boyce's style, but he is far from an unknown quantity. As Paul Hurst points out, he has considerable experience in the Conference and the bonus of having already scored a goal for the Mariners. In that, for the time being, he joins Paul Reece in having scored more goals for Grimsby when playing against us than for us. That aside, Boyce looks a sensible loan signing given the fitness concerns over Chris Doig and Clayton McDonald.

Tonight we host Hereford, who are enduring troubled times both on and off the pitch. On Saturday they picked up their first point in six games with a draw at Braintree; the Western Daily Press headline "Hereford hope to keep riding their luck" gives a flavour of what that match must have been like. A point at Braintree, a winding-up order averted and the honouring of existing contracts are what pass for good news at Edgar Street at the moment, amid redundancies and the sale of their best player. 

Does anyone else have a nasty feeling about how this one is going to go tonight?