Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 21 March 2003

21 March 2003

Hello. My name is Miles, and I'll be your Diary for today. We'll be cruising at an altitude of 21st place, and duty free will be available shortly. May I take this opportunity to wish you a pleasant read.

Recognition at last! The League Managers' Association - a panel comprising Howard Wilkinson, Barry Fry, George Burley, Dave Bassett and Sir Alex Ferguson - awarded Town the Scottish Life Performance of the Week Award. The 1-0 win over Rotherham was deemed the best thing to happen all week in football, and wins Paul Groves an engraved crystal football. The Diary only hopes the award doesn't also come with a Manager of the Month style hoodoo.

Should such a curse apply, tomorrow's opponents Burnley will be the first beneficiaries. Paul Groves has acknowledged that it's not going to be an easy trip, but will no doubt be wishing to avoid another 4-0 whupping. There is a positive tone though: "If we play as well as we have been doing of late, we go there and give ourselves a good chance," he adds. Hasn't that always been the frustrating thing about Town though, eh? Early news is that Darren Barnard, Stacy Coldicott and, most worryingly, Danny Coyne are the players with pencilled-in question marks next to their names on the teamsheet. Should everyone be passed fit, we can expect an unchanged side, including Richard Hughes, who has delighted everyone by agreeing - nay, actually being 'happy' - to stay until the end of the season. Unless a similar deal can be struck with John Oster, however, this may be his last match in a black and white shirt. Well, until Mick McCarthy decides to gift-wrap him and post him to Cleethorpes, anyway.

Oster would have played in the postponed Wolves match, of course. This fixture has now been given a new date, and the gold-clad underachievers will now resignedly trudge to Blundell Park on Tuesday 8 April.

There's a glorious spring day-like atmosphere around the treatment room, meanwhile, with good news for Mick Boulding and Steve Croudson. Boulding has finally given his pain-in-the-arse ankle the elbow, and hopes to be ready for the April 5 Leicester match. And the best news of all is that Stevie Croudson's career-threatening shoulder troubles seem to be over. An expert in how arms join to torsos reckons he can start playing again within weeks. Little Stevie can now put a year of misery behind him, and hopefully start playing for Grimsby again. Oh the irony.

Finally, the Diary was amused last night to hear on Five Live that the Stock Exchange, of all places, was the chosen venue to announce that Terry Venables and Leeds have ended their miserable relationship. Just in case you had any doubts over the extent to which money is taking over football.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have. Hope to see you all again soon. M.