Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 14 March 2008
14 March 2008
Gordon Brown and his acolyte Mr Darling may continue to be disingenuous about when the mythical economic cycle begins and ends, and are frankly clueless at present about what to do about more or less anything (to the point where all recent initiatives adopted by our so-called government have been started by that strangest of lobby groups, the Conservative Party), but as far as your Guest Diarist is concerned, life as a Town fan is much simpler and easier to document. The Grimsby Town bust cycle ended on 4 December. With a final bang, as we got comprehensively stuffed 4-0 by Darlington at home.
And then the boom started. Twenty-three league games later we sit at the very top of the mid-table obscurity zone, looking at the back of the other teams' shirts in the play-off race immediately above us. Sadly, although we continue to accumulate points at a quite impressive rate, the play-off pack are not really that much closer. If Rotherham, as rumoured, go in to administration again, then we inch a step upwards by virtue of the Millers' financial misfortune, but we remain reliant on others running in to a bad patch, don't we? Incidentally, the first football fan to scoff a Pukka pie did so at Millmoor, according to the questionable oracle that is Wikipedia that is. And no, I have no idea how parlous the Rotherham finances really are, so don't get your selfish hopes up.
And tomorrow we trek up the A1 to visit the Quakers. Not to a nice town centre ground like Feethams, but to a big shiny place on the flipping A66 bypass, risibly named the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena. You can stretch your legs; you can see every blade of grass on the pitch from wherever you sit (oh, hang on a minute - there aren't that many blades actually, because the pitch is in a right state); you can make endless anagrams from the impossibly long sponsorship name to the place; you can imagine that a really big club plays here. Thank your god at least that Darlo manage to stay in the top half of the table these days then.
In fact this is possibly the best Darlington side ever, ably managed by that Penney bloke who worked wonders at Donny. I am not ashamed to admit that I am a Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena virgin. although my cherry will be plucked on the morrow (or however the saying goes; I haven't really read much Mills & Boon). A test of our defence, a test of our moral resolve, a test of whether the Butler-Jones partnership is as good as it promised against the frankly pathetic Barnet the other night. In all, a good game in prospect, against fit and tough opposition.
As for team news, then, the Mariners World interview with Lord Buckley has illuminated the great man's thinking. Hunt, who was rested in midweek, is fine and it sounds like he will return to the starting eleven. Toner is training well, but it is too soon to bring him back, and Danny North will continue to rest the back of his knee, which remains sore. All others are fit for selection. Although the scoreline the other night was emphatic, the match will be remembered more for Town's attacking build-up play than for the defensive work, so the return of Hunt will be applauded (within this camp anyway).
The Diary has received an email from a frankly impatient young scamp by the name of Ben Gresswell. He says: "I thought there would be a dedicated marketing campaign from Cod Almighty towers to promote your excellent T-shirts in advance of the forthcoming trip to Wemberleeee? Surely you're missing out on a nice little earner to put towards your annual AGM in the pub? I know at least three people considering purchasing the 'Alan Buckley's Black and White Army' T-shirt for this special occasion. And let's be honest, your tees are certainly classier and dare I say it 'uber cool' in comparison to anything being churned out from BP. Come on Cod Almighty, sort it!"
Well, Ben, when your missive arrived we were too busy toiling over our Wembley anti-franchise T-shirt project to even crack a smile. Launched in our renowned higgledy-piggledy style over the course of yesterday, this glorious piece of fashion polemic has had a rather dramatic effect on the Cod Almighty T-shirt man's inbox, which is now full of advance orders from Mariners fans, AFC Wimbledon fans and folk of good taste and moral sensibility from all parts of England. For every shirt sold a quid goes to the Grimsby Town Supporters Trust and another quid goes to the AFC Wimbledon trust. Out of the eight quid they cost, that leaves almost enough to pay the greedy god Paypal, the T-shirt supplier and of course the postage. So, if you can be arsed of course, why not order one today? The earlier you order one, the less chance that we will run out before the cup final, so please help these two worthy causes and keep our T-shirt elf in a job, eh?
It is claimed that this website takes the piss out of the club occasionally. "Moi?" said Mr Diary in a recent interview. But today your Guest Diarist wants to applaud the hard work done by those unsung folk in the ticket office whom, shall we say, have had a hard week, with a frenetic weekend still to come. It takes a lot of effort to shift the best part of ten thousand tickets and they may have to sell nearly as many again next week. So if you see any of them out tonight why not buy them a drink, eh? See yer.