Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 17 March 2003
17 March 2003
The Town directors are to make another of their occasional bids to unlock the boardroom stalemate that continues to financially paralyse the club, reports the Grimsby Telegraph. At present potential new investors are barred from buying into the club's several hundred thousand pounds worth of unissued share capital until a 75 per cent majority of existing shareholders authorises the sale; and successive attempts to release that share capital have been blocked by a group of shareholders - who are not currently board members - unwilling to see their stake in the club diluted. But an emergency general meeting on 10 April will seek to have the sale authorised. Hey, now did that sound like I know what I'm talking about, or what, eh?
Good news and bad news on the injury front, meanwhile, with fears allayed that Michael Boulding could have missed the rest of the season with his dodgy ankles but danger arising that Alan Pouton faces a lengthy absence after knackering his knee again. Boulding has been told by a specialist that he won't need an operation, just an injection and some modified footwear; and Town's official site speculates that he may be back in training next week with a view to playing against Leicester on 5 April.
It looks like Playstation practice aplenty for Pouton, though, after the player was subbed off in Saturday's win over Watford. A recurrence of his ongoing knee problem means Town's talismanic midfield paradox could be out of action for some time, but at least the injury coincides with a lengthy suspension for the player in a wonderfully fortuitous Roy Keane-type scenario. "It doesn't look good for Alan. It looks like it's the same type of injury as he got before the derby game, the Boxing Day," says Paul Groves on BBC Humber Sport, where they haven't quite got the hang of editing direct speech.
The Hull-based local news source also reveals that GTFC directors are to meet today and discuss the retention of players for next season - despite chairman Peter Furneaux's recent statement that no such decisions would be taken until we know which division we'll be in next season. About half the first-team squad - including record appearance maker and captain John McDermott - are out of contract at the end of the current campaign; so if during the next few weeks Tony Gallimore suddenly remembers how to tackle, you'll know why.
The Osterometer needle twitches hesitantly in its mid-range today as Town's wonderful winger admits his own uncertainty as to his stay at Blundell Park being extended. "I just don't know what will happen," Oster tells today's Telegraph. "I haven't spoken to anyone at Sunderland...I honestly don't know what's going to happen." Who said today's players don't know how it feels to be a fan?
A glance across Saturday's results reveals that the only former Mariner to have scored in the top four English league division professional table leagues was Paul Harsley, who the Diary once saw turn out for Town reserves and now plies his trade with second division Northampton. Harsley scored the equaliser in the Cobblers' weekend visit to Cheltenham - a match watched, incidentally, by 70 more spectators than could make it to Blundell Park to see Town beat a team that's in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Speaking of the Watford match, again, Cod Almighty is proud today to boast not only Tony Butcher's typically idiosyncratic and brilliant match report in prose but also a splendid poetic account of the game from Diary reader Alistair Wilkinson: "Groves and Macca leading by example/Their lung bursting energy more than ample," muses Al. You can read his epic in full by clicking here, so please do; and hey, while we're at it, readers, let's have a Diary Poetry Week! Send your lyrical tributes to the Mariners to codalmightydiary@yahoo.co.uk, and we'll publish them here.