Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 8 October 2003
8 October 2003
Town prove again that they are not a club bound by convention after Iain Anderson's inclusion in the reserve side to play Scunthorpe today reverses the traditional wisdom of rehabilitating injured players in the second string and then naming them on the bench for the first team. Is it just me, or does the enormous photo of the Handyman on the front of Town's official site bear a slight resemblance to Michael Owen? The stiffs kick off at 2 o'clock this afternoon, and the club's official site also mentions that Kirk Wheeler will play after returning from a trial at Scarborough. News to me. Which is why it's on their news pages, I suppose.
Grimsby Town Supporters Trust - the organisation set up last year to promote and raise funds for the club and represent the interests of fans - is to hold an annual general meeting later this month. The AGM is scheduled for 5:15pm on Saturday 18 October, immediately after Town's home game with Colchester and, besides all the usual stuff about the accounts and that, will consider the aims and objectives of GTST for the forthcoming year. Attendance is obviously restricted to members only but supporters wishing to join the trust can turn up and pay on the gate, as it were.
Which is more than they will be able to do this Saturday for Town's visit to Brighton, supposedly. The Mariners' official site alleges that the game will be "strictly ALL TICKET - no tickets can be purchased on the day", adding that only 344 Withdean seats have been allocated to Grimbarians. At 21 quid each, the Seagulls are clearly not expecting many takers. But you know how you can remember when you were a kid and you met George Kerr at a service station on the way to Oakwell, but you can't remember what you did last night between getting home from the pub and going to bed? Just me then, obviously. Anyway, the Diary clearly recalls the issue of several similarly dire admonitions in the run-up to the Mariners' trip to Brighton last season, and 'ticketless' Town fans were still able to pay on the day - suggesting some scam allowing BHAFC to reallocate space to their own fans if possible once they get a rough idea of how many we're bringing. But if you go without a ticket and don't get in, then you didn't read any of this, all right?
Paul Wilkinson is returning to football alongside that bungling charlatan Lennie Lawrence, reports today's Grimsby Telegraph, as reserve team coach at Lawrence's current club Cardiff. The Mariners' former assistant manager - elevated by the Telegraph to "Grimsby Town folk hero" - joins up with Lawrence five months after he was released from his role in a top-heavy three-man management structure at Blundell Park. The report credits Wilkinson as the coaching genius behind several of Town's current bright young stars and the inspiration behind Michael Boulding's blossoming into the lethal finisher he is (despite Boulding himself having publicly attributed his development to the management of Paul Groves), but curiously overlooks his key contributions to building democracy in South Africa, the search for an AIDS vaccine and the fight against global child poverty.
Always 12th or 13th with the news, Teamtalk runs a non-exclusive on the Stacy Coldicott injury sitch after it emerged yesterday that the knackered Town midfielder will remain on the sidelines for some time to come. "Coldicott Eyeing Christmas Comeback" is the headline; "Grimsby midfielder Stacy Coldicott is not expected to be back in action before Christmas" is the first sentence. Keep 'em coming, won't you?