Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 9 August 2003

9 August 2003

Mariners, as a breed, are a superstitious lot; and a few may be rubbing their hands after Town today duplicated their first away result of the glorious 1997-98 season with a topsy-turvy 2-2 draw at Plymouth. Michael Boulding, put through by Darren Barnard, opens the scoring on 28 minutes - prompting the Diary to drop a sandwich and charge through the house in loud celebration - only for the home side to level four minutes later from the head of Marino Keith. Soon after the break Graham Coughlan puts Plymouth in front - again with a header; where were you, Tony Crane? - but Iain Anderson claims a point for GTFC with a long-range volley from Barnard's corner. In Anderson, Crane, Jason Crowe, Marcel Cas, Laurens Ten Heuvel and Des Hamilton, Town's starting line-up features more debutants than an Oxbridge freshers' ball; and if you count Aidan Davison as well, that makes seven.

Elsewhere in the league, three former Mariners contribute to what might euphemistically be termed a lively encounter at Brunton Park, where early exchanges of fire see Paul Raven and Lee Nogan find the net for Carlisle and York respectively. On 34 minutes, though, chuckles are heard from Town fans the world over as two red cards follow a flare-up between Minstermen player-boss Chris Brass and none other than Mr Stephen Livingstone himself. Another big lump with a short fuse, Georges Santos, marks his Ipswich debut with some not-quite-accurate long-range volleying from midfield; while it is serial misfit Terry Cooke, inevitably, who crosses for Lloyd Owusu to open the scoring in Sheffield Wednesday's 3-2 win at Swindon.

Ten Heuvel's loan will become a permanent transfer on Monday, reports the Grimsby Telegraph in a story that, given the team's mode of transport to today's game, finally warrants the headline The Flying Dutchman. Hurrah! Paul Groves confirms that the arrival of the Dutchman means "it's all the money gone," so fans can expect no more new faces at Blundell Park until Phil Jevons gets bored and sods off. In their report on the Larry-10 signing, meanwhile, staff at the BBC Humber site raise fresh doubts over their competence by using a photograph of the wrong player. True, the Diary hasn't seen a lot of Ten Heuvel so far, but two pre-season friendlies have been quite adequate to establish the player's caucasian ethnicity...