Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 2 January 2003

2 January 2003

So first you're robbed of £2.5m by two vicious muggers masquerading as TV companies; then the chief executive of the biggest club in the world wants you thrown out of professional football. And what happens next? You guessed it - a low-pressure system moving up from the mid-Atlantic to form an occluded front drenches your ground in several inches of rain, forcing a postponement that will cost you 25 grand. "Our gate receipts for the game would have been around £50,000," Town's accounts manager Steve Wraith tells today's Grimsby Telegraph, "but for a 'replay' in 10 days' time or whenever, on a cold Tuesday night, that could be halved."

Loan defender Jason Gavin - whose £1m valuation in yesterday's Guardian might be politely questioned by one or two Town fans - has returned to Middlesbrough. The young Irish international made 10 appearances in his two-month spell with the Mariners, which began competently enough but dwindled alarmingly in latter games - most notably at Preston, for which the Diary is still receiving trauma counselling.

Gavin's former loan team-mate John Oster - recalled by Sunderland boss Howard Wilkinson after his barnstorming appearance against Norwich last Saturday - came on in the 84th minute of the peculiarly nicknamed Black Cats' game against Manchester United yesterday, just in time to see a last-minute winner from Paul Scholes nick the match for the Pride of Singapore.

Those with a morbid interest in the affairs of ex-Mariners will also have noted two more goals for Daryl Clare in Chester's 3-2 defeat to Northwich, taking his total to 13 in 11 games since his move to the Deva Stadium in November. If ever a player can be said to have found his level, then that player is surely young Bungle.

And to seal a hat-trick of stories on Town players of the past, Matt Bloomer is training with GTFC while he looks for a new club after being released by Hull City. The ball-playing centre-back - best remembered at Blundell Park for tying his boots while the other team scored - made just three appearances as a substitute for t'Tahgers after his move across the Humber Bridge in 2001 and was last seen on loan at Telford.