Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 19 August 2004

19 August 2004

The Diary considers Irn Bru to be the world's greatest hangover cure, but it doesn't actually stop me falling over when I get drunk. Grimsby Town Football Club, similarly, are discovering that you can have the best goddamn physiotherapy facilities in the state but they don't stop players getting injured before they've even made their debuts for the club. Hence the dreadful plight of the club's new defender Glen Downey, signed from Scarborough only on Tuesday, who went over on his ankle during yesterday afternoon's reserves game against Halifax and was carried off after just 20 minutes. I dunno - first it was Rooney, now they're all at it. Whether he'll be back in action before the player he was brought in to back up - Rob Jones, who'll be out for six weeks with that cartilage - no-one can say, as exploratory looking will have to wait until Downey's ankle has stopped swelling up like a big swelly-uppy thing.

A further unsatisfactory outcome from the match was, well, the result, really, as Graham Hockless' first-half penalty and David Soames second-half not-penalty were exceeded by a trio of goals from the visitors. If anyone's still remotely interested in trialists, Andy Mumford and Dan Bulley both began the game; oh, and the name Darren Watson rings a bell too, but I'm afraid the Diary has lost the will to carry on. Not living; just going back to old news items to remind myself who the flaming blue blazes all these players actually are.

I regret very much to have to inform you of another fixture change for the worse. See, if I were visiting Northampton then I'd want to put it off for as long as is humanly possible; but Town, perversely, have done the opposite and brought theirs forward by twenty hours or so. Yep: this season's trip to Sixfields, which was originally scheduled for Saturday 9 October - on a Saturday, you see, which is when football matches are supposed to happen - has been switched to Friday 8 October, for reasons that probably reflect on contemporary society in much too depressing a manner for me to wish to pursue.

"That keeper: got that injury, didn't retire, went home, he had surgery which sorted his injury out, spent a year 'back home', and is over here. Simple." Olafur Gottskalksson, the Icelandic goalkeeper who is trialling with the Mariners - but not, apparently, to the extent of appearing in reserve matches - has enjoyed a miraculous resurrection of the kind normally only witnessed in sons of God and disgraced Greek sprinters, and this is how one Diary reader explains it. Without sources, though, can we really season our explanatory chips? Eh? Tell me that!

Lastly todayly, just as Darren Mansaram had only 24 hours to save the Earth, you have only a few more ticks of the clock to vote in Cod Almighty's new man of the match doobrie for your top dudes from Town's opening three games of the season. Voting for these initial matches closes at 5pm today, so if you haven't already been and gone and cast your ballots of approval, then feel free to do so now.

I'm off then, cos I've got a headache and a load of stuff to do. Don't think I'll make it to Irthlingborough, but I should manage to type summats up about it over the weekend. See yers.