Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 26 October 2006
26 October 2006
When Town loaned Tony Thorpe from Stevenage one month ago, the news was announced about four minutes after the publication of that day's Diary, meaning it was almost 24 hours old by the time the Diary reported it the following lunchtime. Today the boot is on the other foot, since the Diary's status as a daily news round-up published early in the afternoon means we have avoided running the erroneous story that broke last night about Thorpe extending his loan. Possibly just to take the piss out of yesterday's entirely pointless item on the Mariners' official website about Thorpe's loan expiring after this weekend's visit to Peterborough, or out of sheer crashing boredom, the BBC last night reported that that the player had signed up to stay at Blundell Park for another month, prompting several other sources to run the story as fact - and Town's OS to add a line to its front page this morning to the effect that "a deal to extend Tony Thorpe's loan has not yet been completed". He'll probably end up staying anyway, but what the hell. Given the reaction of many Town fans to the signing of Peter Beagrie, the only surprise is that Tony is yet to be hounded out of Grimsby for having a surname that makes up part of the word 'Scunthorpe'.
Most mentions of the Mariners in the online media in the past 24 hours, though, have concerned not the future of Tony Thorpe, nor the present state of the squad, but the exploits of the team a year back in the past. Town's stunning win over Tottenham in the second round of last season's League Cup seems to have been occupying the thoughts of the rich north London side in the run-up to their appointment with Bastard Franchise Scum FC in the same tournament last night. "I still think about it and it's probably the biggest disappointment of all my time over here," Spurs boss Martin Jol told his club's official website before the match. Similar coverage was to be found on the PFA website, the Rivals network, Push and Run, and the Spurs section on the Vital Football network (twice), and that's without even looking properly. Do you think they were a bit upset by it? Happily for anyone at all who cares about football, Tottenham overwhelmed their opponents last night by five goals to nil. Unhappily for anyone at all who cares about football, the odds are pretty long against Town doing the same when Bastard Franchise Scum visit Blundell Park a week on Saturday.
While we're in the past, let's hold a minute's silence to remember all the goalkeepers who have devoted themselves selflessly to the Mariners' cause in recent years, sacrificing their careers so that you and I can live free and not have to eat garlic. Paul Fraser, Bradley Hughes, Ronald Ermes, Morgan Cranley, Andy Love, Shaun Allaway, Andy Quy, Steve Croudson... we salute you. Andy Pettinger... we wish you every success in your trial with third division Oldham, and note approvingly that you featured in their reserves' 6-0 win over Bolton the other night, because we thought you were pretty good actually, and it was a bit of a shame when Town didn't keep you on.
Before I leave you in the mostly capable hands of Cod Almighty's team of Friday guest diarists, there are two emails to look at today. The first is from Jane Banks, who is well on her way to a restraining order, judging by the volume of email with which she has bombarded various Cod Almighty staff during the last day or two. Her missive to the Diary concerns a daft rumour about John Fenty selling up and, like all Jane's other correspondence, is typed almost entirely in capital letters, so I'm not going to publish it. Does this look like a messageboard? That just leaves Ben Gresswell, whose email is not exactly bubbling over with the joys of life, but at least contains a majority of lower-case type. Take a deep breath, readers...
"In the age-old tradition of your typical Mariners fan, I feel like a moan today. It's probably because I'm at work and it's a bobbins (or Dobbins; substitute either for rubbish) day outside. Then again, it's probably because for the first time since, well the last time I guess, I can't see the light at the end of the increasingly big and black hole that is GTFC. Injury after injury, defeat after defeat, moan after moan. This season has it all. Add to that the dinosauresque 'tricky winger' we got from down the road who seems intent on establishing himself on the box before the pitch and we don't have much to cheer about do we? We can't really blame Rodgersesesesese's can we? He has inherited a small squad with an average (at best) ability. He doesn't have money to spend and coupled with the perma-crocks (amongst whom no doubt are some of the clubs highest earners) his options are what you could call limited. My point you may ask? I haven't got one. I'm just in a mood and fancied a rant. Boo, sort it! P.S. Could the Cod Almighty team not bring out a printed fanzine? I for one would certainly subscribe." No, we can't be arsed. And we won't hear a word against Jim Dobbin.