Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 12 July 2005
12 July 2005
Rookie keeper John Lukic could get an earlier-than-expected run-out for the Mariners this week, as the self-inflicted injury Steve Mildenhall used to avoid last week's army torture session may rule him out of Thursday's game against Scunthorpe. "With it being the Lincs Cup, it's unlikely we would be able to play a trialist in goal," Russ told today's Grimsby Telegraph, while Graham Rodger scurried frantically in the background for a rulebook.
Proactive and fast-moving as ever, GTFC have attempted an explanation of their decision to switch some of next season's home games to Friday nights, only 15 days after the decision was announced. Town declared on 27 June that the Stockport and Wycombe games would be brought forward to avoid clashes with England matches, adding last Monday that Cheltenham's visit to Blundell Park would also take place on a Friday evening. Today the club says the games have been switched to Fridays - rather than, as many fans may have preferred, Saturday lunchtime or Sunday - because of "commercial reasons", citing the fact that more than 6,000 fans turned up for last season's Friday night visit of Cheltenham and then rather undermining its own argument by adding that 1,800 of these were kids who got in for free.
The OS goes on to explain that the reason Town and Cheltenham are so mad keen on playing on Fridays is that it's cheaper because it avoids "overnight costs". But the distance by road between Blundell Park and Whaddon Road is 194 miles - a figure exceeded by the journeys to Barnet (209 miles), Bristol Rovers (231 miles), Carlisle (225 miles), Leyton Orient (223 miles), Oxford (197 miles), Torquay (321 miles) and Wycombe (225 miles). Maybe hotels are just cheaper in those places, eh. GTFC's masterpiece of self-justification ends by asking fans: "What do you think? Let us know on our online poll." Which is doubly pitiful, firstly because a number of fans emailed the club the week before last to protest against Friday football and none, to the Diary's knowledge, have received any reply; and secondly because at the time of writing the only online poll on the page concerns which is the best recent transfer involving some irrelevant Premiership millionaires, and if there actually is an online poll somewhere on the OS about Friday night football then it hasn't occurred to them to link to it from the words "online poll" on a page about Friday night football.
CA's match reporter Tony Butcher is clearly a man who feels summertime football deprivation more acutely than most, as he has emailed me to nag me about his answer to some question about old music set by Guest Diary about 3,019 years ago. "So is it Rick Wakeman then?" demands Tony brusquely. Er, yeah, if you like. Your prize is to help Guest Diary move house.