Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 27 September 2006

27 September 2006

Yesterday afternoon saw the announcement of Tony Thorpe's arrival at Blundell Park, approximately 4.09 seconds after the Diary was published. Lest you missed the fine details, Thorpe is now 32 and joins on loan from Conference stalwarts Stevenage Borough, where he has recently enjoyed the latest of a series of career-defining bust-ups with managers, teammates, chairmen and fans, restricting him to a mere three appearances for the Hertfordshire side since signing for them in the summer. He averaged more than a goal every two games for Luton and Bristol City when he was good in the late 1990s, but this flow had slowed to a trickle by last season, when he registered only one in 24 appearances for Swindon and Colchester. I've no idea if any of that stuff about bust-ups is true, by the way; I guess we'll find out when Cod Almighty publishes a player profile in a few days' time.

If there's a ten-pound note burning a hole in your pocket and your local homewares emporium is all out of chocolate fireguards, why not invest the cash in what is sure to be a much sought-after collectors' item in years to come? The DVD of Town's 4-1 home defeat by Hartlepool last night is available now to order online, and can only grow in value as Pools supporters assemble collections of specialist memorabilia related to the recent sequence of thrashings they have dished out to the Mariners. Each copy comes complete with an official teamsheet and programme, while postage and packing are included in the bargain price of just £9.99. This leaves you with one penny change from your tenner to put towards the cost of getting to Darlington and back the day after tomorrow.

From a penny to a Penney - former Doncaster manager Dave Penney, to be precise. Damn, I'm good. In the wake of last night's calamitous scoreline Loughborough Mariner has emailed the Diary to say: "Booo!", adding: "Let's start the 'bring Dave Penney to Grimsby' ball rolling now!" Loughborough admits to not having been at the game, "but booo anyway!" Well, with the signings of Nick Fenton and Ricky Ravenhill Town seem to be engaged in a project to reassemble Rovers' most recent successful team at Blundell Park, so if their manager turned up as well would anyone notice the difference? The real question, though, would be whether the Mariners' straitened circumstances might mean a scaling down of plans for the Fentydome - in which case GTFC could simply wait for Donny to move to their new ground and then move Belle Vue to the east coast brick by brick.