Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 10 December 2003
10 December 2003
The very wonderful Mr Michael Boulding stands a good chance of recovering fitness in time for the long trip south to face Bournemouth this weekend. That's the verdict of assistant manager Graham Rodger, who tells today's Grimsby Telegraph: "Because of the nature of the injury we're hoping to see him train tomorrow, be fit and be on the coach with us on Friday." The GTFC number two adds: "That's not rubbish," which sounds unnecessarily defensive to the Diary but perhaps recognises the fact that scores of Town fans dislike him just for the sake of having somebody to dislike. Phil Jevons - who, conversely, proves that the key to Pontoon popularity is to not do anything - fears that a comeback for Boulding would curtail his own return to the first team, and seeks to assuage concerns that he lacks the physical presence to provide a suitable counterweight for the 12-goal hitman by explaining: "I think I can. Why not?" Well, I must admit, that's me convinced.
Marcel Cas is another whose esteem among supporters has been boosted enormously by his omission from the first team, and his relegation to the reserve side that will face Boston this afternoon will doubtless have Town fans prostrating themselves at his clogs. The Dutch winger joins injury returnees Alan Pouton and Simon Ford in the second XI, whose Blundell Park kick off against the Pilgrims falls at two o'clock. United's former Town keeper Steve Croudson makes his first return to the club of his dreams since being cruelly released in the summer and left to sleep in the gutter. Still, at least it was warm.
In a move surprising only for the length of time it took, former Town jellyfish Kevin Donovan is finally training with Alan Buckley's Rochdale. The Lancashire club's official website professes uncertainty as to the manager's intentions, citing the possibility that Donovan's appearance at Spotland may be only to keep fit. But is this not precisely the reason Kev-Dov rolled up at Blundell Park a fortnight ago, immediately after his release by Barnsley? Either Buckley is aiming to link up with him for a third time or Dale's training facilities do to Town's what we do to the visiting fans' fish.
Speaking of footballers who play for Grimsby and then Barnsley, the contracts of Tony Gallimore and Peter Handyside are again being extended by the Oakwell club. When the lagered-up left-back and the bastard son of Alan Hansen joined the Tykes in the summer, the club was prevented by its financial woes from offering them anything other than monthly deals. Now that Barnsley are reported to have been given some more money from somewhere, as always seems to happen in these cases, you might think a longer contract would be on offer, but the former Town defensive duo are still living from month to month. If you're going to put a former Leeds chairman in charge, though, then what else can you expect but to be robbing Peter to pay Peter?
Bernard Manning and Barry Fry have proved to the world beyond all doubt that a great big belly need be no barrier to the pursuit of excellence in one's chosen field, and acting on literally one or two requests from readers, Cod Almighty is now happy to announce that their hefty guts ought no longer to hinder their quest to be snappily dressed. To save you reading back over that sentence two or three times, I will paraphrase it and announce simply that CA's cool as fuck GTFC T-shirts are now available in extra large. Buy! Buy! Bye-bye!