Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 6 October 2005
6 October 2005
Grimbarians are a superstitious lot. Put your shoes on the table of my reactionary forebear, Hang 'Em and Flog 'Em Granny Diary, and you invite a hefty clout around the head with her detachable wooden leg. The same punishment awaits any unwary visitor who leaves their umbrella up indoors, swears on a Tuesday afternoon or crosses the threshold of her scullery wearing a green cagoule. Imagine the collective sigh of relief from the south bank of the Humber this afternoon, then, at the news that Grimsby boss Russell Slade (13 points in September plus glorious cup victory over Tottenham) has avoided what we gullible provincials believe to be the 'curse' of the manager of the month award, the divisional honour for the past month having been awarded instead to John Gorman (11 points plus ignominious 8-3 cup home defeat by Aston Villa). Gorman, of course, is the man in charge of tomorrow night's opponents Wycombe, so Town fans can leave those rabbits' feet and four-leafed clover at home just this once, though you can still wear your lucky pants if you're going out on the pull after the match.
Mariners supporters of a more cynical bent may be looking for something altogether more concrete than this sort of nonsense before they allow their hopes to flicker tentatively into life. The heartless bastards may be delighted, then, by the news that Wycombe's goalscoring superstar hero Nathan Tyson is rolling on the floor in agony with a calf problem and will not be in the visitors' squad for tomorrow night's game. Unless, of course, they are of a really cynical bent and are already suspecting that Tyson will undergo some kind of miraculous recovery just in time for kick-off.
Nathan Tyson or no Nathan Tyson, interest in tomorrow's match is reaching levels of quite interested, as those scary-looking green seats are being reinstalled right now to cope with the demand from local people who have suddenly remembered they have a football club now that a League Cup tie with Newcastle is looming. Today's Grimsby Telegraph reports that more than 5,500 tickets have been taken up already, prompting club officials to bolt an extra 620 seats into the corners adjoining the Pontoon, just in time for Friday's game. Tickets for these will be available at £15 for Wycombe and £17 for Newcastle, with no protection from the elements, and the club is yet to rule out a 'pitching fee' for supporters arriving at Blundell Park with deckchairs tucked under their arms.
Three days after the Diary became the first GTFC-dedicated news source to report Russell Slade's interest in Derby's England u19 left winger Lee Holmes, the Grimsby Telegraph has got around to ringing up the Mariners boss to see if it was true. "I did speak to Phil Brown about Lee," admits sneaky Slade, "but things didn't move on so we switched our attention to Simon [Francis]." All hail the Diary for this glorious journalistic scoop, cunningly obtained by intrepidly subscribing to universally available email news services!
The Diary will now bid you ta-ta for another working week. Thanks for reading, as always, and I hope you enjoy the guest stylings of whichever Friday diarist graces this space tomorrow in my absence. See ya!