Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 31 July 2008
31 July 2008
We are being told today that it was a very youthful Grimsby Town XI that last night crashed to a 5-1 defeat at Eastwood Town of the Northern Premier League. All the Diary has been able to ascertain is that Nathan Jarman's seventh-minute penalty only equalised an even earlier opener from the hosts - who, according to the account given on their official website, "proved too strong and ultimately fitter than their full time opponents". Unfortunately, the GTFC line-up is nowhere to be found, with Town's superb new official website more than usually reticent about the fixture. Maybe this official unwillingness to give details is borne out of sheer shame that Lord Alan Buckley reneged on his promise to send a strong team. Maybe it's not actually true that Jarman, Matthew Bird and Grant Normington were the only professionals in the Mariners' line-up, and the SNOS is conducting a cover-up to protect the credibility of the team in the wake of a disastrous trouncing for the first XI. Most likely of all, though, it's that they've got no more idea who played than you or me.
Town's rather unfairly maligned supporters' trust has responded to recent rather unfair malignment, which isn't a word, by inviting fans to an "informal meeting" next week to discuss ways in which they might lend a hand and help the trust to do more. The move follows recent outbursts by John Fenty (Con) in which the Mariners chairman characteristically interpreted web forum witterings as somehow representative of mainstream opinion - this time regarding the performance of GTST - and publicly lectured bemused Grimsby Telegraph readers and SNOS visitors about the need to stop slagging off the trust when the vast majority of them had never done any such thing. A well-argued piece on the GTST website emphasises the need for more help and for fans' trusts to operate at all times rather than just moments of crisis. The meeting, it explains, will take place at the Imp next Thursday, beginning at 7pm.
If you haven't already signed up for 12 different fantasy football games with every intention of abandoning them all by early October, then now's the time to hit Town's superb new official website and learn all about why Ryan Bennett will be playing [sponsor name removed] Championship Fantasy Football next season. No, it's not to learn about his opponents when he goes back to Ipswich for £50,000 and a bag of spanners - it's because Sir Brian Fuckwit Mawhinney has chosen to head off the threat of a Premier League 2 by handing the second flight an increasingly disproportionate share of the Football League's income and negotiating sponsorship and other commercial deals for the 'Championship' alone, excluding the lower divisions in terms of both money and visibility. It seems rather sad to the Diary that fourth division Town should endorse activities that deliberately marginalise fourth division football - but then they'd probably get thrown out of the league or something if they didn't. So cheers, Sir Bri. Just remind us what happened to your idea to abolish draws, would you, you inept, unprincipled Tory twat?
What else is there to tell you? The super soaraway summer Cod Almighty T-shirt sale must end tomorrow at 9am, the Cod Almighty T-shirt Man has asked me to point out. Our thanks to all those of you who've bought shirts in the sale - by my reckoning you've raised more than £160 for the Mariners this month alone, and made yourself look cool as fuck by doing so. Congratulations!