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Diary - Friday 19 January 2007

19 January 2007

"Ricky is twenty-six and he one [sic.] of the fittest players in the squad at Doncaster. He likes to tackle but can play as well." So now we know what we will be missing as new/old manager Dave Penney describes his new signings to the Darlo official site. He cost us nowt, and we got not even a bag of spanners when we let him go. Will we miss Rrricky Ravenhill? Will his name crop up in nostalgic pub yarning in years to come? We'll have to wait and see, gentle reader, but gone he has. Whether he plays against us tomorrow remains a closely guarded secret. Let's hope so.

Meanwhile Town assistant Stuart Watkiss has been speaking to a disembodied voice floating on the ceiling in his office again. Mr Watkiss, who is now in danger of missing dugout duties tomorrow due to a neck strain caused by Mariners World, emphasised the need to play men not boys in the team from now on. Then he mentioned it again. And then he really stressed the point, confessing that new loan signing Hunt is a man whom he has admired as a player, as a manager and as an assistant to Lord Buckley. Oooh, he tackles, like a... like a man; and he isn't scared to bollock his manager either if he gets dropped, you know.

Mr Watkiss also admitted to having noticed that Town hadn't won lately. Or indeed scored lately. And that they seem to have conceded a lot of goals from set pieces and crosses into the box. Consequently he reassured us that the latter is something the lads have been trying to work on in training. He gave us the good news that Town had 23 players turn up to training on Thursday. This was tempered by the fact that Nick Fenton wasn't one of them, being sick in bed with his wife's virus. Watkiss went on to say that Darlington are having a similar season to Town and that Dave Penney had been tearing his hair out with injuries but had a lot of players back available - some of whom can dribble, some are good at scoring and some have electric pace. It also helped them in their draw at Bury that they fielded twelve players, according to the BBC.

But we must remain (stubbornly) optimistic, your Guest Diarist is reminded in a piece on the official site from Chairman 'Positive' John Fenty. Mr Fenty catalogues the injury and suspension litany that has plagued Town so far this season and requests that fans get behind the club without apportioning blame, or indulging in apathy. Fenty is singularly silent on the money the club wasted paying agents as highlighted in yesterday's Diary. Mr Fenty must be right, of course: Town need Reddy back so badly that they are on the brink of selling him to Orient. The piece about this on the official site hints that Reddy doesn't fancy the bright lights of E10, but rumours, like old toffees, abound at this time of year, and one of them says that Reddy is in the course of changing his mind. So maybe those rusty spanners will be heading Town's way after all. Others tell me that poor Gary Cohen is having a very tough time with his bad leg and that the future looks a lot bleaker than the lad deserves. Let's take a second and wish him well.

Cod Almighty contributor and minor pop star Pete Green is an avid reader of FISHUpdate.com. He has sent me a link to the latest edition which has a let's-wallow-in-nostalgia piece about the Grimsby trawler Ross Revenge which went on to become the vessel from which Radio Caroline used to broadcast in those halcyon days of the late 1960s. However, I used to listen to Radio 270 because that was all I could get down on the farm at Kelsey Moor. Most pirate radio wasn't that great actually, but compared to the Light Service and whistle while you (fucking) work it just seemed so.

Now get yourselves down to Blundell Park tomorrow, and let's hope that the lads keep a clean sheet at least. Whether a goal is too much to ask for, well, we'll have to wait and see. See yer.