Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 12 May 2008

12 May 2008

Reportedly Kilmarnock manager Jim Jeffries reckons ex-Town defender Simon Ford is not always "up for it", and has dropped the Space Cadet over his wavering form. The accusation provoked the defender - who amazingly made as many as 84 appearances for the Mariners between August 2001 and April 2004 - to respond: "What's the point of training hard all week then not being involved on a Saturday? It's hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed in the morning in those circumstances." With your Idle Diarist slaving away during the week in the same thankless job for eight years, only to recently give up the monthly GTFC fund to help pay off the ever-increasing utilities bills, one clearly knows how hard done by you are, Si...

Luckily there's no such prima donna attitude or slouching from one of the next generation of yoof playerz that Neil Woods is attracting and grooming to step up and deck out the reserve team. 14-year-old striker Sam Mulready has been awarded the School of Excellence player of the year. 16 goals at various levels of the club's youth system during the season is some return, and just as impressively the lad travels up to Grimmo three times a week from King's Lynn. What attracted Mulready to endure a five hour return journey to train with his teammates when the likes of Norwich, Peterborough, and Boston are closer to his home only the Grimsby Telegraph could have answered. Maybe Martin Butler offered him some advice on spending long hours comfortably in an automobile or, more seriously, maybe Neil Woods is a respected coach and/or can really sell the club to players looking to kickstart their careers.

The money-hungry Premiership isn't a concept that usually appeals to your diarist, not even if the Targhers become next season's Derby County (something a few Targhers fans on Radio Humberside were presuming after yesterday's 2-0 play-off semi-final first leg win at Watford). It gives one who has endured Town since the turn of the century a sense of what is still possible with a football, with the help of a few bob. And while there are seven million quid's worth of difference between owning Nemanja Vidić and borrowing his pie-fed lower league equivalent Rob Atkinson, there are similarities. Birmingham chairman and bongo mag magnate David Gold showed a touch of thin Fenty skin at the weekend, clearly rattled and openly contemplating resigning as Blues chairman because "half a dozen fans" gave him some stick yesterday. Gold also revealed the overall frustration at the difficulty of attracting players to "Birmingham, Blackburn or Bolton", a sentiment Alan Buckley has likewise voiced over luring players to Blundell Park. In future, Alan, just leave the long distance issue to Neil Woods.