Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 25 June 2003

25 June 2003

Doncaster are back in the Football League next season after a five-year spell in the Conference - and the stellar magnitude of their return to the big time is emphasised today by the League Cup draw, which has handed them a glamorous first-round tie at home to Grimsby. The Diary, for one, is sentimentally chuffed since Rovers provided the opposition the very first time I was taken to see the Mariners with my little stool to stand on so I could see above the bald heads and pipe smoke in the Barrett Stand. Nostalgia addicts with good lower-body muscle tone will also be delighted by the chance to stand on terracing at Belle Vue, whence Town will be bound on 12 or 13 August for the first game between the two sides since 1990. "We'll be going all-out to beat Grimsby," enthuses Donny chairman Dave Ryan. "We've had many battles in the past and I think the last time we played them we beat them." It was 2-1 to Town actually, Dave, but since we're both quite excited I won't take the piss or anything.

Those of you who suspect that footballers invariably spend the summertime in generic Mediterranean tourist traps are in for as big a shock as the Diary received last night after watching The Trouble With Sleep on BBC1. Imagine, if you will, my surprise when the end credits of this absorbing hour-long documentary about sleepwalking revealed a certain Simon Ford on the production staff. Impressed though I was with the versatility that enables the Town youngster to switch from centre-half to executive producer, his empathy for his subject matter is bound to have been limited. After all, the people featured in the programme often seemed to be awake when they ought to have been asleep, whereas Simon...