Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 1 March 2007

1 March 2007

Town's reserve side has gone from strength to strength since the arrival last summer of Stuart Watkiss as assistant manager. When the former Mansfield boss took charge of the second XI they had failed to register a win since 1934, but this season the team has suddenly become quite good. Yesterday was a case in point, as the stiffs fought back from a 2-0 deficit away at Darlington to draw 3-3, courtesy of goals from Isaiah Rankin, Nick Hegarty and Gary Harkins - the latter a spectacular Beckhamesque free kick - and the team is currently I don't know where in the Hi-De-Hi League table because nobody seems to want to publish an up-to-date version of it online. Watkiss has given a Mariners World interview which is lengthy, interesting and audible, as long as you can handle the west midlands monotone. Despite the sound of Stu's accent, the Diary is impressed by the sound of his long-term thinking aloud for the future of the youth and reserve set-up at Blundell Park. It's reassuring to know there's a man with a plan.

Back to the present, and GTFC are expecting another attendance in excess of 5,000 for the visit of Bury to Blundell Park this weekend. The club's 'Be Town's 12th Man' campaign has proved a roaring success so far, having significantly boosted the support for the Mariners' recent wins over Bristol Rovers, Wrexham and Mansfield, and Saturday's game has been designated a 'kid for a quid' fixture - possibly in tribute to Chris Casper, who became the Football League's first teenage manager when he took up the Shakers' hotseat at the tender age of 13.

Joe Mooney has emailed the Diary on the subject of the petition to give Sir John McDermott an MBE. "Danny North has signed it," he writes (Joe, not Sir John). "Don't know if this is really worth a mention but while bored at work I was scrolling through the names and noticed there was one Danny North there on the list. Which Danny North it is is of course purely speculative, but I thought that was nice to see... if true... and if not some other Danny North. The presence of one 'SHARON CODD' made me doubt the authenticity of all the names on the list; no offence meant if Sharon is real. There doesn't seem to be too many odd ones. It would be perhaps too depressing to consider only 391 (at my last count) had signed if that included all the comedy names the John McDermott faithful could muster as well as the genuine. The presence of Danny North of course made me notice the absence of one Straight Peter Bore, but perhaps I judge him too harshly - he is an Arsenal fan after all." I dunno - as if homophobia were not bad enough, he turns out to be a plastic Premiership supporter as well. I reckon SPB will need a few more goals to work his way back into the Diary's good books.

Ben Gresswell's email, meanwhile, addresses both the Sir Mac petition and the full name of Luton's Michael Reddy, as raised in yesterday's Diary. "How about Michael Never-Reddy?" he asks. "Or Michael Reddy-Steady-Oops-false start-Injured again-Never play again-Get him off the pay-roll-Useless Git? P.S. Why don't we slip Tony Blair a few quid? I'm sure he could make Macca a Lord in no time. Lord John of Macca. Might not be as glam as being a knight of the realm but it's got to be quicker and easier to get hold of?" A good point, Ben, as long as Town can scrape the cash together, and one that brings us to another Lord - Richard Lord, who writes: "What with all this confusion surrounding the true identity of our very own Luton's Michael Reddy recently, I would like to put it to you, if you wish to accept it, that he is neither a footballer nor a very injured person impersonating a footballer. He is, in fact, a radical linguistic theorist, who suggested something called the conduit metaphor (1979) when he was at the cute little age of minus one. It's cited in Lakoff and Johnson's 'Metaphors We Live By' book. I've been reading it, and it's been crap. Here's a sneaky link." Thanks for that, Rich. Incidentally, the Diary would be interested to hear from any linguistic theorist who can explicate the fascinating vernacular utterance from the GTFC 1997-98 season highlights video, when the commentator says: "McDermott won't keep that in... oh! He does do!"

Before I hand you over tomorrow, bound and gagged, to one of CA's guest diarists, there's one more email - from one of CA's guest diarists. "Oi!" writes mathematics undergraduate Durham Diary, in response to my description of him here yesterday. "I resent the implication that I am capable." Don't worry, DD - your reputation isn't at stake. It's not like I implied you were capable, specifically, of getting out of bed before 2pm.