Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 21 September 2004

21 September 2004

Today's Diary is dedicated to Brian Clough. Apart from all that stuff he won, there's not many football people you think you'd actually like or find interesting, but he was one. Football is more boring without him.

Town are gonna get whupped tonight, right? Not if you ask Charlton. The Addicks' poor away form so far this season, coupled with the club's lamentable League Cup record down the years (unlike GTFC, they've never been past the fourth round), makes the vibes coming out of the Valley more shaky than an anxious Parkinson's sufferer off-roading on a unicycle. Mr Alan Curbishley, therefore, is promising: "I won't change the side [from Saturday's 1-1 draw with Birmingham] unless I have to. We must go there and put a performance in." Such is the respect the ever-delightful Athletic are lavishing towards Blundell Park, in fact, that yer man Curbs has sent spies to the Mariners' last four games. "I've got four reports on my desk," tonight's visiting manager cried out, only his waving hands visible from behind his heaving in-tray, "so I know who we're playing against but I don't know how they're going to play because they've played three different shapes in their past three games, with different players as well." And there the Diary was thinking Mr Russell Slade didn't know what he was doing!

Remember Glen Downey? If the nickname 'The Cat' hadn't already been taken then he'd be down the patent office registering it as a trademark, as he's certainly landed on his feet this week. The defender who couldn't get a game at non-League Scarborough could be celebrating yesterday's 26th birthday by facing Premiership opposition in his first senior full-time match tonight just a few miles south down the coast. No, not for Hull - a few miles further. Downey has recovered from the ankle crank that has delayed his Mariners debut thus far and, with Terrell Forbes cup-tied, could be battling it out with Greg Young this evening for the privilege of kicking Francis Jeffers. In other team news from Town's official site, there, er, isn't any about Justin Whittle, who was believed to have picked up some sort of hurty thing in last Saturday's win over Leyton Orient, so we can only assume he'll be OK. Tom le Pin's groin still hurts, though, and if he doesn't make it then Town can forget any chance of giving Kiely something he can't get out of his head.

With John Tambourine presumably transported back to the antipodes, Noddy cackling scornfully about Radio Humberside's "Town to sign David Reeves" exclusive yesterday, and Tommy Target having retired when the Grimsby Target ceased publication some years ago, Grimsby's search for a target man goes on. The latest to audition is Netherlands-born striker Sergio Ommel, giving the club's official website the irresistible opportunity to dust off those Flying Dutchman headlines one more time. Mindful of the Mariners' recent tendency to ship trialists in from all corners of the globe and then not bother fielding them for the second string, the OS insists: "Ommel will play for Grimsby Town Reserves against Hartlepool tomorrow." Like, whatever! Ommel scored 10 times for Bristol Rovers during a five-month spell in the 2001-02 season and, well, that's about the sum of the world's knowledge, but the Diary hopes his arrival will lay to rest the peculiar idea that an Australian would have had anything to offer English sport. What's that you say? 200 runs on the board with ten overs to go? Ah.

Tony Butcher is clearly a man who cares passionately about the context in which his writing appears. This is why he has emailed the Diary to demand the removal of "I mean I do like doing the washing up, but it's never given me wood" from the selection of random taglines that appear atop the pages of Cod Almighty. "This tagline is shit," writes Tony, with a bluntness seldom even hinted at in his match reports. "Get rid of it." I agree, Mr Butcher, and get rid of it I will, but only at the end of the week, when Diary readers have had a chance to suggest a replacement. diary@codalmighty.com is the email address, so let's see those fingers tapping.