Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 29 July 2006

29 July 2006

Evenin'. After last night's knockabout with Stoke, Dawdling Diary here with a brief catch up to keep y'all going until Monday lunchtime.

To get it out of the way, Town lost to a single goal to a near-enough full strength Potters side. Rodgeres's boys were given a good work out and did well to restrict the visitors to as few chances as they did. Stoke were quick, direct, organised (as you'd expect) but also liked to bomb down the wings, Macca and Newey given a thorough work-out. The Mariners' defence was also given a testing time from a variety of excellent set pieces from the visitors. The goal came as Russell's pacy run from midfield wasn't checked, exposing the lack of pace in midfield and central defence. The ball was rolled across Phil Barnes, returning in goal, into the far corner. Town's best chance came from a rare Toner set piece (rare in that Beagrie didn't elect to hog the chance) that was fizzing just under the bar, before Simonsen parried the shot over. Michael Reddy also had a chance when Sir Macca's pacy low clearance was missed by the Stoke defence, but Redds hit the ball at the visitors' keeper.

Plus points: the return of Reddy, lasting an hour before being subbed, possibly due to knackeredness, possibly due to a slight injury; a most certainly sharper performance from Son of Futch; Toner's presence in midfield increasing as the game wore on; Haaaaarrrrkins being an actual presence in midfield; the appearance of Peter Bore from the bench, who excited, possibly aroused, Messers Butcher and Wilson who were commentating for Mariners World; some handy corners from Beagrie; and the fabled red socks made a welcome return. Let's not linger on any negatives. It was only as friendly and overall an improvement all round.

Grez noted post-match he felt the team was moving in the right direction, and the players had given a good account of themselves, against a team who had drawn 0-0 with Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven a few nights before. Fingers crossed that this progress continues on Monday night against Leeds.

But wait! There's a few other tit bits worth sharing with you. The Rodger is looking at two signings, hopefully by Wednesday. Cross the fingers on your other hand that those moves come off. The official line from the club about the supposed and far-too-mooted return of Alan Pouton was laughed off as "rubbish". According to Radio Humbs, another murmured returnee, George Santos, is interesting the Town manager. But the player is umming and urring about whether he joins Town or Brentford, where he has been playing recently. The whole affair has been dragging on for aaaages and be reminded that whatever offer the Hulk rejected from Hull a short while back was far more than Town could ever afford. Oh, and apparently the red away shirt is actually two halves of very similar shades of red which "doesn't show up in the pictures."

And finally, former Town manager Billy Walsh, who took over from Bill Shankley, has passed away. Walsh was 85.