Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 27 November 2003

27 November 2003

Good afternoon and welcome to the Diary, and for those of you watching in black and white, well done! Town's goalkeeping cupboard is almost bare after Andy Pettinger broke a finger in Tuesday's Lincolnshire Cup win at Lincoln, as the club's number two number one will be out of action for at least two weeks, announces the club's official site. Sixteen-year-old central defender Miles Chamberlain replaced Petts in goal for the second half at Sincil Bank, as no goalkeeper had been named among the substitutes; and Paul Groves, likewise, will probably continue to sit five outfield players on the bench rather than turn to rookie keepers Paul Fraser or Bradley Hughes.

Since the Diary is feeling uncharacteristically generous and sunny today, I think we'll give a plug to the personalised GTFC Christmas cards that are now available from the club shop. For five of your English pounds the club will send one to the recipient of your choice, anywhere in the whole wide world, signed by your favourite player! Which is quite a jolly idea! You have to tell them who your favourite player is though, because they might not already know. The deal is "subject to availability", adds the site wisely because you never know when the printers will let you down or Alan Pouton suffer devastating ligament damage in his pen-holding fingers.

While we are in a festive frame of mind, furthermore, Miles Moss has emailed the Diary recalling the Ghost of Christmas Past. "Remember when Ivano Bonetti took over Dundee, and brought in loads of exciting foreign players?" he writes, and I do too. "And remember the messageboards going spacko at that time with all the 'Town are so shortsighted - this is what we should have done'; 'why didn't the board get Bonetti to manage us?'; 'look at what Town could have done' etc...? Well little over a year since Bonetti left, Dundee have gone into administration and have had to sack twenty of their players and backroom staff. Now who's shortsighted?" David Blunkett? Oh, I see what you mean.

Finally, Emma Gillingham now has the full story behind the fans' chant at Griffin Park that catapulted GTFC into the full 400-watt glare of that very bright media spotlight, for those of you who are still fascinated. "A few exiles were at one of the 4 pubs before the match," she writes. "The pub was full of rather happy rugby fans singing the original version. One member of the fishy party quipped back with 'Swim Low, Sweet Halibut', and it kind of stuck! The 'swim' theme also seemed to work quite well, given Micky Boulding's goal celebration (for his first goal). Monday morning, Victoria and Nicky on the 5 Live breakfast show were talking about the fact that football fans 'around the country' were singing 'Swing Low' at the matches. Another of Saturday's fishy party texted them to tell them of the alternative version." Ah! Thanks for that, Emma, even if it means Town fans are still yet to scale the rarefied heights of Radio 4. I ask you - what do we have to do to get a mention on the Today programme?

Well, I don't know about you, readers, but I make it Thursday, which makes it my day off tomorrow. See you at the weekend, and if any of you would like to be a Friday guest diarist sometime then email codalmightydiary@yahoo.co.uk. We're ready for your call!