Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 24 September 2005

24 September 2005

Town remain top of the fourth division - but came within a fly's fart of extending their lead to four points when Julian Joachim exploited the sunblindness of their defence to nab an equaliser at Boston this afternoon. The late surrender of two points is all the more maddening given that the Mariners had led for 80-odd minutes against ten men following an early red card for the home side and a 12th-minute penalty scored by Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala. On the bright side, Anthony Williams ships three for Carlisle, who slip from second place to sixth with a home defeat by Leyton Orient, but it's finally starting to happen for Wycombe, who replace the Cumbrians in the Mariners' slipstream with a 3-2 win at Mansfield which places them on 18 points: just the two behind Town.

Earlier in the day we all got very excited about the Cup of Pop again as GTFC were handed another home tie against a perennially underachieving top-flight team: this time Town's fellow black and white stripeys Newcastle United. Round three takes place in the week beginning 24 October; Graeme Souness is already promising "utmost respect" and "the strongest team possible", while Oran' Juice Fenty is already crossing his fingers for another visit from Emperor Rupert's all-seeing cameras. Priority for tickets will this time be given to fans who retain stubs from John McDermott's testimonial game against Hull on 3 October "and a couple of other games", announces the club, as the commercial department frantically scrabble round for a discarded cigarette packet on which to work out the timetable for selling them.