Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 19 August 2008

19 August 2008

In the wake of last Saturday's whupping at Brentford - which scarcely drew so much as a half-frown from the Diary, so accustomed have I become in recent years to Town being whupped - Lord Alan Buckley has sent a stern message to his first-team slackers by arranging a friendly for the reserves. The second XI will travel to Winterton Rangers tonight, explains the Mariners' superb new official website: "With the Central League not kicking off until next week... Buckley felt that some of his squad players needed to get some more games under their belts." In a Grimsby Telegraph piece the manager names Jamie Clarke and Straight Peter Bore as the fringe players in need of a workout. Buckley hopes recent injury victim Robbie Stockdale will be able to take part, adds the SNOS, without deeming it necessary to refer to the performance of his stand-in Ryan Bennett at Griffin Park. In a similar spirit the Diary hopes Gary Montgomery will be able to take part, and that Town sign a reserve left-back today who will be able to take part as well. Oh, hello, Nicky Nicolau - I didn't see you there! I don't expect Tom Newey did either.

Being from Grimsby often proves to be a cause of severe social embarrassment, what with the racism, the horrible accent and the Town fan who emailed the football chants website to tell them how we like to sing "red boy, red boy" at the other team's goalkeeper. Another group of people attached to the local football club appear to have dragged your name through the mud again, as the official website of Brentford FC today carries an apology from a Mariners supporter "for the very poor behaviour of some of our 'fans' who thought it was clever to chant through the speech by the widow of the guy who sadly died at the back end of last season". And there we were thinking these people couldn't sink any lower after the taunts to Brian Laws at Scunthorpe the other year.

Last up today, some ticket news for the League Cup game at Blackburn. Town's superb new official website revealed yesterday: "Tickets are expected to arrive at Blundell Park early this week and they will go on sale to our season ticket holders exclusively on Wednesday and Thursday. They will then go on general sale on Friday." An adult ticket will cost you just 12 quid, with concessions priced at a fiver. Just remind me how it is that GTFC justify charging visitors to Blundell Park 18 to sit in the Osmond, will you?