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Diary - Monday 21 November 2005

21 November 2005

Good day! Let me begin by saying how glad I am to be back with you after a week in the wilderness, and let me continue by apologising firstly to anyone who emailed while I was away and didn't see their words make it on to this page, and secondly for the absence of any kind of Diary over the weekend just gone. This was for the simple but compelling reason that, although the official Diary laptop actually decided to start working again midway through last Tuesday afternoon, I just couldn't be arsed. Sorry. You know what happened anyway: Town's record-breaking unbeaten away run was finally ended by a team that prefers passes to percentages, and the Mariners were unlucky not to lose 3-2 instead of 3-1, or something.

Was it the green seats or was it Tom Newey? Hard-nosed Humber-area sceptics have noted that Town's recent loss of form has coincided not only with the temporary accomodation installed at Blundell Park but also almost exactly with the presence in the first team of a certain former Cambridge left-back. The good news is that fans' favourite Gary Croft, who played the last ten minutes at Wycombe on Saturday, has returned to fitness just in time to reclaim his position from 'Five Yellows' Newey, who will be suspended for the trip to Oxford this weekend.

In the absence of any salacious gossip or credible post-match managerial quotes, Town's official website today reports that the former Liverpool, Real something-or-other and Republic of Ireland striker John Aldridge is to appear at a "sportsman's dinner" at McMenemy's in February. With its characteristically idiosyncratic approach to initial capital letters, the OS promises that the guest speaker will regale the club restaurant with "tales of his 2 World Cup adventures, playing in FA and League Cup Finals, winning first division Championships and Charity Shields, and as a manager taking Tranmere Rovers to their first ever Major Cup Final". No mention, then, of whether diners at the £30-a-ticket event will also hear Aldridge discuss all the penalties he won illegally against Town by pretending to be fouled, nor whether with a touch more luck on the day his Tranmere side might have gone on and won that season's Major Cup.