Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 20 July 2006

20 July 2006

Spurred into action by saucy gossip surrounding the absence so far of Gary Cohen from Town's pre-season friendlies, the club's official website has today explained that the pacy forward has been away for no more interesting a reason than that he is suffering from tendonitis. What's that, then? Why, laughs the OS, it's "a condition which causes the tendons to become inflamed". What are the tendons? Dunno. Grahams Rodgerses' team take on Lincoln tonight and Rotherham on Monday before second division Stoke visit Blundell Park next Friday, and it is for this match that Cohen - who looked a quality addition to the Mariners' playing squad last season after Russell Slade loaned him from Gretna, until January, when his transfer became permanent - is earmarked for a return to action, or something approximating to it.

After winning last season's Midlands (and Grimsby) Floodlit Cup, Town's youth team has found itself under greater than usual attention from supporters hoping that the club's new golden generation will not be much longer in coming. So it is that the club today reports news of a successful beginning to Ver Yoof's pre-season, with a 6-2 win over York City on Tuesday night, the boys responsible for this mighty show-the-first-team-how-it's-done haul being Stephen Rock (3), Andy Taylor and Jammal Shahin (2), who I seem to remember scored the winner in that cup final way back in the mists of April.

Yeah, it's a bit of a slow news day (new shirts now on sale!), which is why this paragraph is about Michael Boulding. Not that Boulding is unworthy of comment, as there can't be too many people who have left their careers as high-ranking British tennis players to enter professional football with Mansfield Town, then move on to Grimsby and score a hat-trick against Wimbledon shortly before scoring for Aston Villa in the Intertoto Cup, returning to Blundell Park and then pursuing Premiership ambitions with Barnsley, only to reject a contract offer from Crewe to retire from football and go into business, and then return to football with Rotherham. Not by the age of 30, anyway. The player is now on trial back at Mansfield, where he has already scored against Derby in a friendly and brought his 17-year-old brother for a kickabout as well. So there's never a dull moment for the former Quick Mick! Apart from playing for Aston Villa, I suppose. That must have been really dull.

From a former tennis player to a current tennis journalist, Stephen Bierley (though, like Boulding, he does other sports as well), who has emailed the Diary thusly. "Even though the MMs have yet to kick a ball in real anger (i.e. played Boston) it's good to know that Rodger (and out?) is already 71st in the longest-serving managers list on the League Managers' Association website. Worringly (or not) Mr R Slade does not appear on the list at all, so may have already fallen into a Somerset levee. Should we be told? Probably not, but watch out in those parts for something shiny bobbing near the surface. It may not be a lily pad." Indeed, Stephen, and how fitting it would be if Slade has mysteriously gone missing, since that's exactly what his players did during his final game in charge of the Mariners.