Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 19 October 2004

19 October 2004

As we said yesterday, Michael Reddy and Ashley Sestanovich are officially rated as fairly doubtful for tonight's long haul west to Shrewsbury. What Mr Russell Slade will be planning, of course, is that his opposite number Jimmy Quinn will see the news and think: "Hullo! That Sestanovich is a big chap, too! If he's not playing then I can drop my tallest central defender!" and then Ashley will be OK to play after all, and he'll score three times with his head, and Quinn will tell the post-match press conference: "That crafty fox Slade out-thought me tonight! Well done, Grimsby - well worth your three points!" and then Slade will go to sleep with a smile on his face, and we'll win the league come May. And if that's what ends up happening then the Diary will applaud him all the way.

It could go the other way, of course, and Town's journeyman striker Colin Cramb could end up facing one of his old clubs. Cod Almighty's rough guide to Shrewsbury - published back in June, way before the possibility arose of GTFC becoming his 43rd professional club - noted that Cramb was "euphemistically described on [Shrewsbury's] official site as having a 'languid style'. Slow and useless then - our kind of centre-forward." Prophetic, or unjustly harsh on the man who could become the Mariners' most prolific Scottish forward since Neil Woods? You decide.

All I have to do is dre-e-e-e-eam, dream dream dream dream dre-e-e-e-eam, dream dream dream. On the one hand, the chorus of the well-known 1958 Everly Brothers hit, on the other a pretty fair summary of Simon Ford's perception of his defensive duties - and the narcoleptic former Mariners defender is set to resume his rapid eye movements in the Scottish Premier League after being given a contract by Kilmarnock boss Jim Jefferies. Ford's summer move to Bristol Rovers fell through when a warning flashed up on Ian Atkins' computer screen that he'd reached his squad limit of 50 players, but the player has now been contracted at Rugby Park until the end of December, with a series of clauses setting out bonus payments for appearances, clean sheets and staying awake for the whole 90 minutes.