Cod Almighty | Diary

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3 March 2016

Devon Diary writes: In much the same way as it was postulated that Kevin Bacon was the centre of the Hollywood universe, I have this stupid but brilliant idea that Grimsby Town are the centre of the football world.

Bacon, of course, famously stated that he had either worked with everyone in Hollywood, or if not directly then he had worked with someone else who had in turn worked with them. This gave rise to the idea of 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' which was in turn based on the concept of six degrees of separation – that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintances apart.

Whenever I look at Town's fixtures I look at the each opposition team and perform mental checks to find the links which support my theory. This sort of thing...

Chester: Ross Hannah plays for them now but he played for us last season. James Alabi is currently on loan there from Ipswich and played for us not so long ago.

Solihull Moors: Omar Bogle joined us from the Moors last summer.

Harrogate Town: Sir John McDermott is their assistant manager.

Torquay United: Chrissie Hargreaves both played for and managed them and Martin Gritton had a stint there too.

Shrewsbury Town: French forward Jean–Louis Akpa Akpro runs into corners for Salop having done the same for us for a couple of seasons ago as we spiralled out of the Football League.

Lincoln City: er... almost everybody, ever.

You get my drift? Try it but don't be lazy; direct head–to–head games are too easy to use as links. In the same way it's far too easy to link us to Barcelona by pointing out that we have both played Arsenal a few times over the years.

Why is this important? Well, it isn't really. But when I performed my customary checks on Tuesday morning, just after the semi-final draw was announced and then, after I resorted to Google, Soccerbase and Wikipedia later in the evening, I couldn't find a real link between us and Bognor Regis FC.

We have never played the Rocks in any competition and we don't seem to have any former players in common. Considering the huge numbers of playing staff who have come through the door at Blundell Park over the last ten or fifteen years this is quite unusual and makes the tie something to savour; something fresh and not marred by old rivalries rooted in a grievance from years gone by. As Wicklow pointed out yesterday, if we weren't playing Bognor we'd be rooting for them.

Sadly, though, we must try to end their hopes of glory and set up a probable Wembley meeting with Halifax (barring an upset by Nantwich) – a last chance for revenge before we go our separate ways in the summer. But that's me looking ahead. So let's get back to the here and now – except there's not an awful lot of news, apart from the signing of Patrick Hoban which Wicklow briefed you on yesterday.

You can buy your tickets for the Bognor tie next week but more pressing than that is Friday's fixture at Forest Green. Hursts is playing hard to get and won't tell us if new signing Hoban will make the team. The new kid on our block is saying all the right things though and it would be good to see him get a run out at some point tomorrow evening. Marcus Marshall has a gammy something or other which sees him ruled out, but apart from that pretty much everyone is available.

In the absence of anything meatier than that, let's make a nice cup of tea and enjoy the speculation that yet another manager will get the boot from Leeds as rumours abound that unsavoury crook Massimo Cellino might relinquish the services of that mascara-daubed, unsavoury crook Steve Evans. And no, we don't want him at Blundell Park. Not after the last time he visited. Not ever.

I'll see you at the New Lawn on Friday. Up the Mariners!