Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 4 August 2006

4 August 2006

Your Guest Diarist accidentally dug up a dead dog this morning. Sadly its entrails were long gone, so nothing was gleaned about prospects for the upcoming season. It's what comes, I suppose, with the territory, but I'm left with a tiny pang of regret for not knowing what the dog was called and under what circumstances it was buried under a tree peony. The peony was dead too - no plants or animals are ever harmed in the production of this Diary, gentle reader. Soon afterwards it came on the radio that my old mate Arthur Lee had popped his clogs. And that got me thinking about Albert Lee playing with heads hands and feet at the Winter Gardens in the early seventies. Fastest guitarist I ever saw. But speed isn't everything; well, not quite - just ask the Town back four. None of whom I suspect are big Love fans or have ever heard of any guitarist called Lee, whether Arthur, Alvin or Albert. At this point I kind of knew it was time to wander home and write the Diary.

John McDermott has spent over half his life playing for Grimsby Town; the average Town fan will have spent about three quarters of their life supporting Grimsby Town. Yet none of us will have a flipping clue how the Mariners are going to perform this season. But passing appears to be in fashion again and the Town squad, although a tad challenged numerically, is an intriguing mixture. Therefore I, for one, have set my personal hope setting to 'springs eternal' (that's three notches above 'ebbing away', for the psycho-mechanically minded). And with Russell Slade telling his new local radio station that he has no money for Reddy and Mr Rodgerses telling the Telewag that young Mr Reddy "likes it here and I have no reason to believe he will give anything less than 100 per cent if selected", there's every reason to think positively about things. Mr Rodgerses is pleased with Reddy's performances in training apparently, and reckons Bolland's poorly thigh is just about better. So there's only Cohen out, and maybe Croft who has slept the wrong way on his neck. As for who will buy Reddy, if anybody, only time will tell.

Gary Harkin has been chatting to the Telegraph as well, saying: "If you are brave enough to play football you will get out of this league. It doesn't have to be kick and rush - the promoted teams in the last few years have shown that." Well said, that man, and let's hope you have a decent game tomorrow. It's so nice to be at home for the first match of the season - and to have a half-decent referee for a match against what is rumoured by Mr Watkisss to be a much-improved Boston side. Time will tell, of course, but get yersens down to Blundell Park I would. Of course, if you can't be arsed there's always the famous Cod Almighty alternative gig guide. See yer.