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Diary - Wednesday 28 July 2004

28 July 2004

Tony Crane is one of the few players signed by Paul Groves who now remain at Blundell Park, and if he wants to stay there much longer then he will need to get his amply dimensioned arse in gear next season, because his Towering Centre-Half position is now officially under threat from Rob Jones. Jones has joined the Mariners on a one-year contract from Stockport County after impressing Russell Slade in Town's recent Lincolnshire Cup tie against Scunthorpe - well, one assumes Slade was impressed; perhaps he just couldn't be arsed to look at any more trialists. It is upon the GTFC official website that the Diary is depending for accounts of the player's prodigious bulk, since I didn't get to the Scunny match; and Jones's Soccerbase profile gives both his height and weight as "0.00", which would suggest only that we have the new Stuart Campbell on our hands.

Jones is already ahead of Crane in the epic struggle between the two that lies ahead, as the former Owlertonian may need a scan on the knee injury he picked up against the Scun, which kept him out of Monday's friendly against Willem II, and is already suspended for most of next season anyway.

In other physiotherapy news, Russ and Michael Reddy are in disagreement over whether the former Sunderland striker will be fit in time for Town's opening Division Four fixture at Darlington on 7 August. Well, it's not really disagreement; more of a difference of emphasis. The manager tells today's Grimsby Telegraph: "We want Reddy back for the start of the season. We are working on his rehabilitation, particularly his strengthwork at the moment." The player himself, though, has given a Radio Humberside interview in which he all but rules out his chances of making it to the Safecracker Arena, explaining: "I think it's gonna take me a few weeks just to get a bit of confidence back in the leg again." Email the usual address with your definitions of 'strengthwork' and suggestions as to how to boost the self-assurance of limbs.

Matlock is not only one of those cute little towns you pass through if you're dawdling through the Derbyshire Dales; it is also the home of a lean, mean Unibond League goalscoring machine by the name of Danny Holland, and just when Russell had taken down the 16-berth tent pitched in his back garden, the trialists have started coming back. Town's official site reports that Holland is a 22-year-old striker with, as I say, Matlock Town, who has scored a tasty 65 goals in the past two seasons. Moreover, furthermore, and that's not all, as a fortnight ago Dan the Man picked up where he left off, in a style sure to endear himself to those of a Marineresque bent, by nabbing a hat-trick against Sheffield United. In fact it's probably Russ's mates at Bramall Lane who've tipped him off.

Finally, I can still find no mention on Town's official website of tomorrow night's alleged friendly at Gainsborough Trinity, but today's Grimbo Telebo repeats its shock assertion that such a game will go ahead - a claim now corroborated by the official website of the other GTFC, which goes so far as to venture a kick-off time of 7:30pm.