Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 17 August 2005

17 August 2005

Town fans who made it back to Lincolnshire in an ark after last Saturday's washout at the Deva, and fancy another attempt at seeing their heroes perform in the fabulously wealthy city of Chester, had best take heed that the match has been rescheduled for Tuesday 6 September. Assuming that the pitch is reasonably dry and that paupers such as you, I and the Mariners first XI are allowed to pass within the boundaries of the city, the game will kick off at 7:45pm, and who knows, maybe Michael Reddy's hamstrings will be OK as well.

Several years after 5,000 Grimbarians repeatedly described him as "Wales' number one", Danny Coyne has a real chance to establish himself as the principality's preeminent goalkeeping power by playing against those bastards from England. Though often called up to his national squad, the one-time custard-clad stopper has mostly been kept on the bench by Mark Crossley and Paul Jones, neither of whom have ever blotted their copybooks by playing for Grimsby but are now dead old and retired and that. Coyne's new rival, 21-year-old Ipswich stickman Lewis Price, has a very Welsh name indeed and has also never played for Grimsby but got hissen crocked last weekend, opening the way for Dan to face Slovenia in a friendly this evening before lining up in his country's World Cup qualifier against England on 3 September, despite having been dropped again by Burnley already this season. "Oh, well, OK, if we really have to," said Wales manager John Toshack, probably.

Users of Town's official website who like wearing ties and can't stomach any of that fancy foreign muck have the chance to win a seriously traditional meal at the denim-averse club restaurant McMenemy's. A very easy, costs-a-pound-to-enter competition on the OS offers three-course meals for two at each of the next three home games to its lucky winners; it's very much fish, chips, roast beef and boiled-to-death vegetables territory, and Grimsby may not be in Yorkshire but it likes its yorkshire puddings. And if your name isn't drawn out of the hat, don't despair: the meal only costs 14 quid more than the price of entering the competition, so everyone's a winner!