Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 26 July 2004
26 July 2004
Hello, and a big welcome back to - er - me! Yeah baby - your regular Diary has just uncovered a bulky cardboard box from beneath three duvets and a dozen bin liners stuffed with clothes and managed to clear just enough space on the floor of my new house to unpack a computer from it and get the hell online to return to duty and bring you your daily fix of GTFC-flavoured news regurgitation, laced with considerably less actual sarcasm than I am often credited with. In fact, as I rummage through endless piles of rubbish that really should be discarded, in the hope of finding something useful and in working order, I know exactly how Russell Slade is feeling.
Before we proceed to Monday's goings-on over Blundell Park way, though, a word - well, a paragraph - of thanks to last week's troupe of guest diarists, who discharged their responsibilities admirably in trying circumstances. Soberer diarists than I would struggle to keep tabs on the legions of trialists who have recently nipped into BP for five minutes round the cones, and given that even the club's official website apparently didn't know what was going on half the time, my stand-ins are due praise aplenty for their diligent work in my absence.
Without any further ado, then - assuming the Mariners don't currently have a Portuguese winger called Ado on trial - let us see what's a-happening. People rolling round on carpets? No, but Willem II are in town this evening, presumably arguing among themselves as the scent of cannabis looms mustily in the air, and good news for Town fans with a secret liking for large half-African men is that the six-foot-something French-Malian striker Abdou Tangara has received international clearance to play. Pumpin' Stace C and Bigass Tony Crane miss out through poorliness. Today's Grimsby Telegraph offers a rather comprehensive run-down of the starting XI, in fact, with Slade doing his Laboratoires Garnier bit with talk of gel and chemistry.
Not to be outdone, the Mariners' official site gives its own despatch from the frontline, with the rather worrying appearance of Clint Marcelle among the substitutes for tonight's game, despite the trial of the former Harrogate Town ace having been reported as coming to an end last week. Erk.
The Telegraph's preview of tonight's game is one of a satisfying trio of GTFC stories in today's paper, with an Ashley Sestanovich interview revealing that Slade "basically wants me to cause havoc" and a similar natter with Quick Mick Reddy throwing light on the manager's affability ("he's a great fella") and ambition ("his plans are very impressive"). Not that the Diary is haunted by all the same things being said about Paul Groves this time last year, you understand. BBC Humber Sport, meanwhile, is doing its best to catch up, and has got round to recording Town's acquisition of Thomas Pinault, but is more concerned today with asking us about Bury's cult heroes. Am I missing something?
Darren Barnard - who used to play for Grimsby every now and then - is not going to sign for Kilmarnock of the comedy Scottish Premier League. The former Wales defender recently took time out from his demanding schedule of annual interviews with the national press about how nobody loves him to undertake a trial with the club, assuring the Scottish press that, even though crappy little Grimsby didn't want him, "I am still in the Wales squad and the last two games I played were against Russia in the Euro 2004 play-offs." Which is true: although Barnard appeared in several GTFC games subsequent to his international adventures, he could hardly be said to have actually played in them. Killie manager Jim Jefferies has decided, however, that his priority is a central defender. I'm not quite sure why he needed Dar-Bar to travel all that way before he decided it, but the hills are nice.
"Hello Mr Diary," writes James Booth. Hello, James! Readers with longer attention spans than is normal these days may recall that, before the Diary's house-moving gubbins kicked in big time, I had asked Mr Booth whether, as a resident of Toronto, he might be able to get me a copy of the new Hidden Cameras album on vinyl (they are a band from Toronto). "At the moment I am living in Budapest, Hungary until November. So depends how serious you are? I certainly know a place I can get it if you can and want to wait until December (after I have been back to Toronto and when I will be in the UK next)." Botheration! Thanks, James, but they're too ace a band for me to wait that long. Reminds me - I'll have to buy the Concretes album as well. Anyway... "If you want me to get you any Hungarian records now would be a good time to ask," concludes our globetrotting Mariner. Can I get back to you on that?