Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Wednesday 24 December 2008
24 December 2008
Sod the Queen's Speech - there's an interview with Mike Newell on Mariners World! Born is the king of Greater Grimsby: this is the best message from royalty you're likely to get this Christmas, and I'll bet you any money that HRH can't do a one-eyebrow-raised one-eyebrow-lowered Roger Moore thing with anything like Mr Re-Newell's aplomb. Tom Newey, of whom it can at least be said that he doesn't often get injured, is still injured, reveals the boss, and will remain unavailable for the Boxing Day visit of Notts County; after all the trialist left-backs the Town manager has brought in recently there is every possibility that Newey has recovered from his hamstring injury but is now nursing a bruised sense of self-worth. MN finishes with a seasonal ladle of hope for The Fans, restating his appreciation of our support - and correctly implying that if you and I think the players need to play for 90 minutes instead of 85 then it's only fair that we support for 90 minutes instead of 85: "With five or ten minutes to go, as opposed to walking out, you need them with you for the 90 minutes - and we certainly had them against Shrewsbury." There's a message there for all of us.
Ipswich Town midfielder Liam Trotter has reciprocated the public praise flung his way by King Mike yesterday and says yes, he might be interested in returning to the Mariners permanently if he can't get a look-in at Portman Road. "The fact the club is fighting relegation from the bottom division is not an issue for me at all," Trotter is quoted in today's Grimsby Telegraph. "If anything, it is a learning curve which maybe all players should experience at some point in their career." That, readers, is an exemplary attitude which, were it more widespread, would make football a better place - and the string of comments about the story on an Ipswich fan site suggests not only an ongoing failure to understand the Football League's new homegrown players ruling but that the Mariners could pull off something of a coup should Trotter come back up the east coast on a permanent basis.
Diary reader Martin Robinson has emailed on the recent theme of big festive fixtures of the past - and nothing in the Universe is bigger than Sheffield Wednesday. "Think the first time I ever saw a really big crowd at BP was Sheff Wed at home in the early eighties, seem to remember the crowd spilling onto the pitch after some fans were just let in through the gates due to turnstile congestion! Must have been 18,000 there. Also a game in the mid-eighties where the present Mrs Robinson attended, think it was Notts County at home, Steve Sherwood saved a penalty and we all went mad in the Pontoon - she thought we'd scored a goal and won the match; it ended up a 0-0 draw. Terry Curran may have played for Town that day as I recall a mazy dribble that ended with him taking it past the keeper and then blazing over an empty goal. Suggest as a last resort you take the baby for a drive in the car, usually puts them to sleep. However my eldest usually awoke when returning home - doh!" Thanks are due to the redoubtable Emma Blackbourn for another baby sleep suggestion, and of course to Martin - I'll try and learn to drive sometime and start saving up for a car!
Our last email before Christmas comes from Town and Workington fan Boroughparker, who has simply attached "a picture of Christmas past... from Borough Park, Workington. Workington are in red. Best wishes!" Who's in the black and white stripes, then, I wonder?
Aww. All that remains today, then, is to extend festive goodwill to Diary readers throughout the world - so a very happy Christmas to all three of you - and to laugh at Chesterfield. Heh heh heh heh heh!