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Diary - Tuesday 24 October 2006

24 October 2006

Gary Jones can hold up the ball. Tony Thorpe can thread it between defenders. Both may be very good drivers and loving fathers, with a flair for the Sunday Times sudoku. But for all the qualities of this twosome, they are not blessed with a surfeit of speed, and without the injured Isaiah Rankin, Gary Cohen and Luton's Michael Reddy, Town's forward line has recently boasted all the pace of an arthritic two-toed tree sloth with a penchant for strong marijuana. Given that the loan market seems able to offer only uncoached teenagers who prefer the fish and chips in Southend, GTFC boss Grahams Rodgerses has decided the answer could lie closer to home, and may give Peter Bore another run-out up front. The whizzkid winger and leading goalscorer played as a forward as he came through Blundell Park's youth system and was restored to the role in last week's Pot of Paint match against Lincoln. The result having been something vaguely approaching encouraging, Rodge is now thinking aloud to the Grimsby Telegraph that Bore could be the one to liven up the attack on a longer-term basis. "Peter's young and enthusiastic but you can expect him to produce the goods every week on his own," the manager has apparently told the Telegraph. No pressure or anything then, Pete.

While we're looking at the Telegraph website, I do love the way Todgers Out campaigners are using the 'comment on this story' feature to unleash their streams, regardless of whether the story in question has anything to do with Town's rubbish form. Put Bore up front? Booo, Todgers out! The reserves have won three games on the trot? Booo, Todgers out! Humberside Police named as one of the worst-performing forces in England? Booo, Todgers has got no contacts... and so on. Tim Berners-Lee, the Diary salutes you.

Did we mention the Pot of Paint? Town's second-round tie at Mansfield has now been blessed with a date and a time of kick-off, as most professional football matches tend to be, and we have the Mariners' official website to thank for the glorious tidings that the game will be played in one week's time, next Tuesday, 31 October. Admission will cost ten of their Nottinghamshire pounds and the match will kick off at the outrageous and unearthly past-your-bedtime hour of 7:45, wiping out the entire next generation of young supporters at a stroke.

Oh, alright then - let's do the Crewe and Tom Newey story, if we have to. The news that third division Crewe Alexandra may be interested in signing Town's wayward left-back has been stuttering along the conduits of the worldwide web for more than a week now, and the Diary just ignored it because I thought it was bollocks. But since it began in the murky backwaters of online football journalism the story has slowly spread out like an oilslick towards increasingly respectable sources, reaching the Grimsby Telegraph last weekend and yesterday contaminating the shoreline of Sky Sports. The gist seems to be that a rumour got out about the Railwaymen looking at two left-backs, Newey and Bury's Tom Kennedy, and the club's assistant manager Neil Baker is now being quoted that "we're looking at plenty, and the two names mentioned, we've looked at them." There's chuff all about it on Alexandra's official website, though, and remember that Crewe are actually quite a well-run club.