Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 27 March 2007

27 March 2007

omg wtf m8 lol top8 u thx 4 da add!!! The Myspace Mariners, also known as Town's youth team, will face Colchester in the national final of the Youth Alliance Cup if they can overcome Stockport in the northern area final first. The Essex adolescents beat Swansea 5-1 in the equivalent southern tie at the weekend, says Town's official website, and will next meet the winners of the northern face-off, which will take place at Stockport on the afternoon of Wednesday !!11! April.

Former youth team captain Ben Higgins is following in the footsteps of several local players who never quite made it for the Mariners by trying his luck in the USA. Oh, and that Beckham fella, I suppose. After his release from Blundell Park last November Higgins signed for Eastwood Town but has since been given a chance at semi-pro soccerball, reports today's Grimsby Telegraph, and flew to New York last weekend. The Telegraph website may have had a minimalist makeover, meanwhile, but it's still struggling to reformat printed text for publication online:

"I have been to America before - ironically with Town when former Youth coach Ian Knight arranged to take us over as 12-year-olds to 41

California to play games.

And there's just no way he said "ironically with Town when former youth coach Ian Knight", is there? Anyhow, the Diary's best wishes go with Ben; although I never saw him play (unless he turned out in that weird Macca benefit match against Hull the other year), I quite liked him in the Mariners World interview he gave after he captained the youth team to their cup win the other season. Now, does anyone know whether Graham Hockless has captained Richmond SC to 14 Australian league titles yet?

David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers), Jermaine Defoe (Spurs), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), David James (Portsmouth), Gary Neville (Manchester United), Kevin Nolan (Bolton), Nigel Reo Coker (West Ham), Micah Richards (Manchester City), Paul Robinson (Spurs), Alan Stubbs (Everton), Ashley Young (Aston Villa), Arjan de Zeeuw (Wigan). No, it isn't the Diary's fantasy England team - it's the 13 Premiership footballers who have pledged to donate a day's wages to a hardship fund for nurses at the end of the season. Fans, too, can sign up to support the May Day For Nurses campaign and, although its website seems almost befuddled by the notion that people might support clubs outside the Premiership, you might want to give it a look. That's all for today - t'ra for now.