Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 28 August 2008

28 August 2008

They've failed to score against basement buddies Brentford, Chesterfield and Rochdale so far this season, but after easing to a 2-0 win over third division Tranmere in the first round of the League Cup, the confused footballers of Grimsby Town took the lead last night away at Blackburn Rovers of the Best League In The World. Granted, Tom Newey's fabulous seventh-minute free kick preceded four goals from the home side, but never mind about that - the Mariners' woes are clearly at an end if Tom can simply take his set-piece skills that little bit higher, so that as well as beating top-flight defences he can occasionally get one further than the wall in the fourth division too. It's just a little sad that the 1995 Best League In The World champions couldn't attract more than 8,379 people through the gates to witness Town's finest hour, isn't it? We got a thousand more than that against Newcastle the other year, and Newcastle were rubbish.

Speaking of Newcastle the other year, the Shearer-twatting former GTFC captain and Cod Almighty T-shirt idol Justin Whittle appears to be settling in well at his new club Harrogate Town. Having taken ten points in their opening five games, the Yorkshire club has climbed third place in the Conference North, and kept three clean sheets in the process. Not only that, but yer man Whitts restored Harrogate's lead with a goal in their 3-1 win at Gateshead last Saturday. If Butler and Taylor keep with the blanks, we could surely do a lot worse.

Lastly today, and lastly for me this week before Guest Diary eases effortlessly into place tomorrow, an email from Richard Lord asks: "I was wondering whether anyone else knows what the SNOS means by instructing us to 'join Scott and Dave for ball-by-ball commentary'? Are they referring to a multi-ball system employed at Ewood Park, or is this just evidence of a cliché from another sport creeping into an area where it's not relevant because most of Britain's football journalists no longer think when they write?" There are journalists working on the SNOS? I'm not sure, Richard - as Town prepared to face the club placed third in the Best League In The World, maybe they were just expecting a cricket score. "My tutors always told me to avoid clichés like the plague. See what they did there?" Yes, and my mum told me a million times never to exaggerate. Ba-doom-tsssch.