Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 5 September 2008

5 September 2008

Welcome to Friday's Diary - penned, in an ironic twist, by your original and regular Diary. 'In an ironic twist' is one of those clichés that proper football journalists are very keen on, but I suppose it's better than making like a messageboard nesbit and penning something with your knickers in a twist. I am writing this in a friend's flat in south-east London while Guest Diary is detained by a person from Porlock.

Town's subscription web service Mariners World seems to be in danger of losing what few subscribers it has, what with the recurrence of 'commentary problems' compounding the current lack of Alan Buckley interviews. Whatever your position on the GTFC manager, he is undeniably good value when responding to a banal question from Dale by biting the poor bugger's head off - and his absence from MW has left Town fans including the Cod Almighty team with something less of an idea as to the teams he will field in forthcoming matches (not to mention the formation - gah). Fortunately today, the Grimsby Telegraph offers a platform for AB to intimate that Robbie Stockdale is still out (I thought he was back in training more than a week ago?) but Richard Hope will contend for a place on the subs' bench at Gillingham tomorrow. "As for Javan [Vidal], I have no immediate thought about playing him, although he did look lively when he came on, as you would expect from a Manchester City player," adds Buckley, who clearly never watched Steve McManaman winding down his career with the Sky Blues in 2004-05.

The Diary always quite rated Gary Cohen as a decent fourth division player at least, so it's nice to see, in the Telegraph again, that he's back on his feet and doing his stuff. After two injury-ravaged years out of football since his release by the Mariners, er, two years ago, Cohen is making a comeback with St Albans City of the Conference South (lovely ground, Clarence Park), where he has already impressed manager Steve Castle with his lightning-quick pace. If his career resumes along the same lines as it proceeded at GTFC, 'Sorted Me Out' Gaz can expect shortly to be singled out for violent treatment by opposition players for the entire game and receive a string of yellow cards from referees for the heinous crime of being held back by the arm and repeatedly dumped on his arse.

The Crawley Observer is not the first place the Diary turns to for GTFC snippets, but since I'm down south today and since there's bugger all else to talk about, what the hell. It's not that interesting really, despite the Observer's best efforts. "Crawley Town boss Steve Evans has told two League Two clubs to keep their hands off his players," reports the paper dramatically. "The clubs made approaches for Reds players Jon-Paul Pittman and Adam Quinn but were told in no uncertain terms they are not for sale." Wooooh! Basically, Evans says Town (as well as Morecambe and Macclesfield) "tried to sign Quinn last season but couldn't agree a fee." Of perhaps greater concern is the startling colour of Evans' face in the mugshot that accompanies the piece, which gives the impression of nothing more than racist TV funnyman Jim Davidson having fallen asleep on a sunbed. If the fun-loving former Boston boss never wins a European Cup, at least he can rival Sir Alex Ferguson in the beetroot cheeks stakes.