Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 27 November 2008

27 November 2008

What do successful big clubs have that the Mariners don't? They have lots of money. They have big stadiums. They have supporters who, by and large, understand that being a supporter means actually going to matches and supporting, rather than scrabbling round for excuses to sit at home on their arses and whine like spoilt toddlers. And they have Coaching Structures. Town are as distant as ever from acquiring the first three, but today they have taken a step nearer the latter with the appointment of Brian Stein as chief scout. Stein worked under Mike Newell at Luton and, as well as doing chief scouting, "will also offer a supporting role to assistant manager Stuart Watkiss", says the club. "The board sees this appointment as part of its medium to long term planning," explains Town's superb new official website - an assertion not entirely supported by the Grimsby Telegraph's revelation that the initial terms of the deal "will see Stein stay at Town until the end of the season", but I guess they can always extend it later. Just like every other supporter, the Diary has no realistic idea at all as to whether the Mariners' new Coaching Structure will be a great success or not, but it's what successful big clubs do so I'm dead excited!

Town's turnover rose from £2.3m to £2.9m in the 2007-08 financial year, yielding a pre-tax profit of almost £118,000. Booo Fentys cheap option booo. It seems from the club's newly published accounts that this was due in large part to the final of last season's Dulux Cup - unless you have a better explanation for gate receipts rocketing from £823,000 the season before to £1.29m in 2008. But credit is due to the Mariners' backroom staff, with impressive rises in revenue from non-footballing activities: income from sponsorship went up from £360,000 to £427,000, retailing and merchandise from £149,000 to £213,000 and catering from £432,000 to £459,000. Just imagine how much more there'd be if they had a website that was fit for purpose too!

A couple of Diary readers have emailed on the subject of former Town players turning out in non-League. Boroughparker, who interestingly follows Workington as well as the Mariners, points out Martin McIntosh playing for Alfreton and the legendary Terry Barwick on the books at Stalybridge Celtic. Alan Richardson, meanwhile, writes:

Had to email on this one. I'm an exile (who isn't that reads The Diary?) living in Stamford which means my new no. 2 club are the Daniels (nicknamed after an obscenely fat man who died in the town - insert your own joke), who also play in the Unibond South.

Anyway, I went to watch them the other weekend (while Town were at Bury) against Sheffield FC. Stamford dominated the first half playing nice football but went in at half time 2-1 down, then resorted to lumping it forward and snatched a 2-2 draw. Took me back a few years. Matt Oswin played for about 70 mins and did pretty well and they've just signed Miles Chamberlain. Sheffield also had Scott Partridge playing for them - not strictly one of ours, but he'll do due to his dad.

Got me thinking about other Town players I've seen there. I watched the big Stamford vs. Spalding derby game in about 2000  with Gary Childs and Dave Gilbert both playing although I can't remember on which side. What I do remember was Gary Childs strolling around the centre circle and basically running the game. He then chipped the keeper from about 40 yards - class! Dave Gilbert's contribution was hugging the touchline and walking on his tiptoes. Why did he do that? (Other than to appear taller.)

Smashing stuff, Alan - thanks very much. It reminds me of Dave Gilbert's spell with Lincoln United, when a certain member of the Cod Almighty team got absolutely trolleyed while watching them and took pains to inform Gilbert afterwards that not only that he bloody loved him but also that he was his best mate, he was.

Alan's and Boroughparker's emails bring us neatly to another topic of discussion to keep the Diary ticking over perkily until Town start winning games regularly: the teams you support other than GTFC. I don't want to know about you sort of follow Liverpool on the telly because you once pretended to be a Liverpool fan to fit in with the other kids in the playground at James Meadows - but if you've got a non-League bit on the side near where you live (since nobody who actually lives in Grimsby reads the Diary, apparently!) then email diary@codalmighty.com and we'll have a look next week. Over to Guest Diary tomorrow, and here's to a result at, um, is it Port Vale on Saturday?