Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 9 November 2005

9 November 2005

Worksop Town and Wrexham are the clubs who have sniffed the Mariners' nosegay of players and find themselves incurably seduced by the sweet perfume of Tony Crane. The big-boned central defender was told last week that he could leave Blundell Park after failing to command a place in the first team this season, and York City declared an early interest only to withdraw it immediately after watching Crane play against their reserves. But all was not lost for the player's hopes of, well, playing, and Tone could now face an agonising choice between, on the one hand, dropping two divisions to the Conference North to join Worksop and, on the other, remaining in the Football League but having to live in north Wales.

Town's reserve team travels to Scunthorpe this evening hoping to avoid defeat for the first time all season, and if the management has its way the side that steps out at the Glanford Despairdome (assuming Scunny haven't got ideas above their station these days and moved their reserve games to a mud track on the approach to Normanby Park) will feature not one trialist, not two trialists, but three trialists. As we learned yesterday, the Mariners are taking a look at Newcastle right-back Kris Gate and non-striking striker Bas Savage, and today the excitement becomes almost too much to bear with the announcement that Sheffield Wednesday's Richard Evans may also take part tonight. A 22-year-old left winger with eight league starts to his name, Evans failed a trial with Colchester in the summer. Nick Hegarty is receiving attention from GTFC medical staff as he recovers from another kick in the teeth.

Oooh, look - Hull have signed a striker. Must be at least a week since they last did that. Great manager, that Taylor.

Grimsby-area pop fans can look forward to two consecutive nights of live pop this week, as the flyers above demonstrate. On Thursday, indie singer-songwriter type Chris T-T headlines the Matrix Club on Bethlehem Street, with support from Robochrist and Cod Almighty's very own Pete Green; while on Friday you can do what Fridays are for by eschewing the delights of Town v Macclesfield in favour of a gig at the Spider's Web on Carr Lane featuring Girlfrends, The Huskies and Pollen. Actually, if you head down after full time then you should still catch Girlfrends, and it's free in, so you have nothing to lose but your bitter memories of another sub-standard home performance by the Mariners. Hooray for pop!