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Diary - Friday 8 September 2006

8 September 2006

Your Guest Diarist has negotiated his way through life operating on the basis that if you know what level of pain to expect it becomes more easy to bear. A philosophy particularly relevant to life as a disciple of Grimsby Town FC, don't you think? Having watched the hip-scrapingly informative interview with Dave Moore on Mariners World the other day, it is very apparent that Mr Michael Reddy will be able to swing his lead (should he choose) for almost the forseeable future. The man has been cursed with long-running injuries in each of the last three seasons - his first at Town where he complained of a nagging injury almost as soon as he arrived; that important second one where we needed him to score a few more to blag us an ill-deserved promotion; and now this, his swansong year (before the Bosman kicks in), when he is unlikely to be fit until the approach of the January transfer window awakens him from his pleasant doze in front of daytime telly.

So we have Mr Reddy writing himself out of first team contention by insisting on a dodgy operation, and young Mr Cohen rubbing his patella muscle up the wrong way so badly that, according to Mr Moore, the surgeons said either rest it for six months or have an operation whereby the recuperation period is of similar length. The net result is that Town's striker options are a bit limited. Not the time for the Lump to lose confidence and form either. And a bit soon to have to rely on the young lad Taylor, who tried so hard on his brief debut.

The official site promised to tell us yesterday that they would reveal today two names that belong to two strikers that the club are talking about loaning. They delivered on their promise earlier this morning. Sadly, Ritchie Humphreys had already signed a loan deal taking him from Hartlepool to Port Vale. So that leaves the redoubtable Carl Asaba occupying number one position on Rodgerses' speed dial. Mr Asaba doesn't have a club he can call his own presently, but had a trial at Leeds in pre-season, during which he played against Town at Blundell Park. He also turned out for Hull reserves after apparently failing to impress Leeds. Asaba, in this case, was thought to be an unwitting pawn in the Tahgers' quest to play every journeyman striker who ever journeymanned in merry olde England.

"We have two loan targets," whispered Rodgerses to the official site. "They are Humphreys, Asaba and Chris Zebroski... No, we have three loan targets: Humphreys, Asaba, Zebroski and Nathan Jarman... Amongst our targets..." Young Master Zebroski is a right scamp, having allegedly glassed his skipper after a bust-up in an Austrian restaurant midway through Plymouth's pre-season tour - causing an injury that needed more than 100 stitches. His contract cancelled, Zebroski was advised that his future may lay at a club like Millwall, and there he has been a-trialling. Oh, until Millwall signed him, that is. The Telegraph appeared to go to press at about half nine this morning, so restricted itself to gloomily reporting: "And he has revealed trying to enlist more help in time for tomorrow's clash with enquiries made about Hartlepool's Ritchie Humphreys and free agent Carl Asaba. But with those two targets expected to move elsewhere, Rodger may have to stick with what he's got for the time being."

So Town are after a loan striker, but all the good ones have gone. In his Mariners World Walsall match preview interview, Mr Rodgerses equalled his own eyebrow-raising record. Despite intensive analysis it is proving difficult to establish any correlation between when they go up and, er, why they go up. I can feel a minor obsession coming on, gentle reader. In similar vein Sir John of McDermott is struggling still to understand why his leg sometimes hurts and sometimes doesn't. At least he has the sense to not want an operation on it. In other news it's anyone's guess whether Town try out a new midfield to match their new centre-halves, and the Telegraph tells us that Nick Fenton and Graham Rodgerses have worked out that (a) it's better to play well through the whole game; and (b) that it's better to be in front than behind. I'm off to mentally prepare myself for some serious pain tomorrow. See yer.