Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 23 December 2008

23 December 2008

It's a strange kind of love that prompts one to log in to a website at midnight, half a week before Christmas, to watch the 'highlights' of a business meeting of middle-aged men in suits. But that's the Diary's love for Grimsby Town Football Club and you, reader, and that's the club's annual general meeting on Mariners World. That and I wanted to make meself scarce while Baby Diary was screaming his little head off.

So in case you're not a MW subscriber, or in case you just thought the AGM would be a load of guff, it's actually worth sitting through the first six minutes of duly this and hereby that to hear a question from an unseen man called David about rebuilding the Main Stand and John Fenty (Con) respond with considerably more patience in person than he tends to show when people question the worth of the Fentydome online. In 1994, he explains, GTFC were looking at turning Blundell Park through 90 degrees, and that's why the Frozen Beer Stand had been "essentially built as an end stand". Further curiosities include the chairman's beliefs that matchdays create "untold congestion" in the BP area (by the standards of any reasonably sized urban area, Grimsby and Cleethorpes have never actually experienced a proper traffic jam since the motor car was invented) and that he can build bridges with Radio Humberside while insisting on calling the station "Humberside Radio". Most importantly of all, though, when that accountant bloke is talking, what's that shirt on the wall behind him with red, white and blue stripes with the 'Interpolis' logo across the middle?

Just the other week we all thought Liam Trotter was about to decline a third month on loan with the Mariners and return to fight for a place at Ipswich. How our unbelief was unjustified, because the 20-year-old midfield bustler signed up to lengthen his stay at BP the very next day - and now there's even talk of making the switch permanent. If the worse than useless loans of Tomi Ameobi and Malvin Kamara seemed to prove that Stuart Watkiss wasn't to be trusted in the manager's chair, Trotter - the other player brought in by Town's assistant boss during his spell as caretaker manager - has been much more of a success, and today's Grimsby Telegraph finds Mr Michael Re-Newell "refusing to rule out" a bid to bring him back for good next month. The Telewag reckons "sources in Suffolk" reckon the Tractor Boys might let Liam leave when the transfer window swings open on 1 January but, to be honest, it looks much more like a case of Newell keeping his options open and saying "never say never" than declaring a firm intention to pursue it.

"A merry Christmas to all at Cod Almighty," begins an email to the Diary from Steve Lang, whose old mate Kirky emailed yesterday with a fond reminiscence of the two of them narrowly cheating a watery grave in Northamptonshire. "And to Kirky and family!" he continues. "I well remember that old green van! Still get carsick at the thought of it! But where were you, John, when I broke my elbow three days before the end of term and had to lump two heavy cases, one-armed, across country by train? On second thoughts... Speaking of broken bones, perhaps Kirky and others of that vintage will remember the day when John McGrath broke 'Gorgeous George' McLean's leg? At full time I was among a gaggle of spotty adolescents who leapt out of the Pontoon and raced across the pitch to exact revenge. But once we got 'upclose and personal' and realised how big he was our wrath quickly subsided!! Apparently the Newcastle manager's pre-match instructions to McGrath were always the same: 'Show me how fast their centre-forward can limp!' I live in Essex now and don't get to many games but will be at Barnet on 3 Jan... perhaps see you there Kirky?" Well, I've sent you both each other's email addresses, so you can take it from here - but if the two of you do manage a meet-up, remember to let all of us here at Friends Reunited Cod Almighty know about it afterwards!