Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 26 May 2005

26 May 2005

Cor, Liverpool, eh? Not that the Diary wishes any kind of success on a football club that voted to set up an institution - in this case the Premier League - whose all-but-stated intention is to destroy smaller clubs such as Grimsby; but it just goes to show that it ain't over 'til Sam Aiston actually signs a contract. And while this time yesterday the agent of the former Shrewsbury winger was on the blower to BP doing the player's reneging for him, and we all believed Mr Russell Slade when he said Sam was off to Darlington instead, the club formerly known as Safecrackers United is now claiming, far from having completed the transfer, to have had only "a brief discussion" with the player. So either Aiston's off to Bristol Rovers after all or Russ may live to regret his spontaneous outburst of anger at a player. Still, it wouldn't be the first time.

Better news for the Mariners, unless you believe that Joe Lightowler is still registered to the club and will break through into the first team and score 39 goals next season, is that Town completed the signing of Jermaine Palmer yesterday afternoon, albeit on one of those confidence-undermining one-year contracts. Better news still for the Mariners, if Ronnie Bull's positional sense makes you yearn for the good old days of Tony 'Mr Dependable' Gallimore, is that your erstwhile wandering left-back is unlikely to be appearing in a black and white shirt next season unless Wycombe Wanderers choose this design for their away kit, as Bull is officially on trial at Adams Park.

Another former Town left-back, Darren Barnard, is the subject of a piece in the Western Mail all about how that corner he conceded for Wales against Russia "led to the score that probably shredded any hope he harboured of escaping Grimsby for better things". And the rest of it is even more badly written than that.

A quick look at today's email, then - because there isn't much of it. "Grimsby beat them, you know," writes Michael Shelton. I know! And Tony Gallimore was in the team! In case your attention span doesn't reach back to the beginning of today's Diary, Michael is on about Liverpool. Likewise, readers who encounter any Carlsberg-shirted plastics on the streets of Grimsby this evening may care to remind them gently of the events of 9 October 2001.

And with that I take my leave of you for another week in the life of Grimsby Town Football Club, but forget ye not to come back here at the same time tomorrow - well, roughly the same time; it doesn't have to be 1:27pm and 14 seconds - when, I am given to understand, the events of the next 24 hours will be summarized for you by an entirely new and photogenic kind of guest Diary. T'ra.