Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 29 December 2003

29 December 2003

It's not quite chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but the smell of freshly baked bread wafts agreeably through the corridors of Chateau Diary this morning as yours truly makes first use of the breadmaker my mum gave us for Christmas. Mrs Diary isn't too happy, principally because you can set the thing the night before to have bread ready when you wake up in the morning, and until now she has always enjoyed turfing me out of bed early on Saturday mornings to make bread manually, but there you have it. Her needs are my kneads.

Into this domestic idyll intrudes, as ever, the ghost of Christmas past and future that is Grimsby Town Football Club and its variable fortunes. Watched by a now colossal home crowd of 6,172, the Best Disciplined Club in the League (© 2003 P Groves) acquired a fifth red card of the season on Boxing Day as Tony Crane was not unreasonably dismissed for a last-man foul on Oldham's Jermaine Johnson early in the game, at which point the Diary sat back and vowed never to inflict an attachment to the Mariners upon any future son or daughter. Despite the worst efforts of Simon Ford, though, Town battled strongly to secure a 3-3 draw courtesy of two excellent goals from Phil Jevons and one from Michael Boulding.

Forty-eight hours later a Macca-free Mariners XI kicked off at London Road and made it two Christmas points out of six by claiming a goalless draw. "That's something like 10 clean sheets in the last 15 or 16 games," reckons PG, speaking on Town's official site, "so we're on the right track," but with just one win in the last eight league games the Town boss is also mindful of the need to turn draws into wins. John McDermott's absence - which at least gave the excellent Marcel Cas a game - was due to "the early signs of a hernia," adds the OS.

What else? Tidings of comfort and joy and former players. I think Daryl Clare scored a hat-trick at some point, and looks increasingly likely to be playing league football next season as Chester storm the Conference; Lee Nogan got two for York yesterday in their win over Alan Buckley's Rochdale - who have now signed Kevin Donovan on non-contract terms; and Luke Cornwall, who scored four times for Town in an excellent loan spell in 2001, is being released by Bradford just six months after joining the West Yorkshire strugglers on a free transfer from Fulham.

There may be more to tell, but I feel like going back to bed. Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas.