Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 20 February 2008
20 February 2008
Last night's meeting with Morecambe in the first leg of the Dulux Cup northern area final, which did not happen, has been rescheduled for next Tuesday. The second leg at Blundell Park, which was originally scheduled for next Tuesday, has been rescheduled for the Tuesday after, to avoid a clash with the first leg. Lord Alan Buckley and Viscount Paul Bolland have both supported the referee's decision to postpone the match. Anyone who had already bought a ticket but can't make the rescheduled dates can get a refund. All of which is a bit disappointing, because it's 2008 in Great Britain and we are all now obliged to work ourselves up into a mighty rage about things that aren't really that significant and furiously blame someone or something for them, even when it's not really anything's or anyone's fault. Saying that, it's nice for Nigel Miller, because it can't be very often his decisions receive such strong support.
Agents. You can't live with them; you can't live with them. In Town's earlier, more ambitious fourth division days, you may recall, a sickeningly large wodge of supporters' cash was channelled out of Blundell Park and into the bottomless pockets of football's parasitic middlemen. In the second half of 2004 this peaked at £4,000 a month, which might not sound much to giants of English football such as Chelsea, Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday, but it might have been enough to stop Rob Jones sodding off to Edinburgh. It has just been revealed that in the second half of 2007, by contrast, the agents took nothing at all from the Mariners' coffers, but John Fenty (Con) can be found in the Grimsby Telegraph not ruling out a return to the heady days of signing Curtis Woodhouse as punishment for Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala going to the African Cup of Nations and then disgracefully surrendering the play-off final. "Sometimes players will only deal through their agents and it's the only way if you are interested in that player's services," reflects the chairman. On the other hand, instead of signing good players, we could just wait for the new stadium to be built and get us promoted by default, like happened with Darlington. Oh.
Literally three of you have emailed the Diary with tales of birthdays made miserable by the Mariners. "Has any one suffered worse than myself?" asks Dave the Engineer, now a postie but clearly pitching to be rechristened Dave the Emo. "25 March - a day etched in the memory of all Town fans, not just because it's my birthday but it was the day when Russ gave his half-time talk on the pitch during the Lincoln debacle. Having been surrounded by the riot police in the pub before the game, the final result really topped off an excellent birthday to remember." Actually, though, Emma Blackbourn has suffered much worse. "I am pretty sure that 8 May 2004 (Tranmere away) must rank up there with the crappiest results ever," she writes. "Oh, and it was my 31st birthday. It did give me an added excuse to get very very drunk though." Ooof. The Diary's heartfelt, if belated, commiserations to you both.
"On my 15th birthday I rang up the BBC Radio Humberside office to take part in their very-90s 'Golden Goals' competition," writes Richard Lord. "You know, the one where you had to guess how many goals were going to feature in the games involving Town, Scunny and Hull. I happened to mention that it was my birthday and the lady said she would get in touch with Burnsy and see if he would give me a mention, which he did. We won 1-0 at Southend that day; Daryl Clare got the goal." That doesn't sound too bad to me, Richard. Is that the best you can do? "This year my birthday is on a Friday, and hey presto - a Town match! I wouldn't have expected that five years ago. MK Dons sounds like a defeat, though. It's bad enough when you lose, but when you lose to a team that you absolutely despise it can ruin any day of your life, let alone your birthday." Pre-emptive moaning - it's the future for forward-looking Grimbarians!