Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 22 September 2003

22 September 2003

The handbags that followed Town's first goal against Chesterfield at the weekend could have been Gucci ones, warns Paul Groves, or to put it another way, bloody expensive. The celebrations for Stuart Campbell's opener were enlivened considerably by Darren Barnard and Tony Crane, who had to be separated by fellow defender Simon Ford; and Town's player-boss believes the club has been lucky to escape further action. "It could have been worse for them and it could have been worse for us from a moment of stupidity," Groves tells the embattled Grimsby Telegraph, possibly remembering the extraordinary scuffle between Tony Rees and, er, was it Tommy Watson, about 1990 sort of time, when they both got sent off, can't remember who against. That didn't work too well, did it. Saturday's little skirmish is believed by observers to have resulted from Barnard offering shall we say a rather frank appraisal of Crane's performance.

Sidelined winger Iain Anderson could run the risk of a further injury as he recovers from the knee problem that has kept him out of Town's last six games. The Mariners' official site reports that the former Preston man "is having to play a waiting game" while his ligament gets better, raising the possibility of a thumb strain from too much twiddling. With a bit of luck Anderson could return to first-team duty during October.