Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 30 September 2009

30 September 2009

Welcome to Wednesday's Diary, in which we try to cobble together some news on tonight's visit to Chesterfield despite the bit of the internet being broken that the Diary seemingly depends on to look at the official websites of clubs in the Football League. Hey ho! Luckily for us, we already have Cod Almighty's comprehensive pre-match factfile, so there's yer overview type stuff. Team news? Well, if you must.

Decent goalkeeper Josh Lillis has returned to Plucky Scunthorpe after the end of a fairly successful loan spell, leaving hopefully-fit-again Nick Colgan in nets. On the issue of Colgan's age it has sensibly been pointed out that Town fans would have gladly welcomed back, say, Danny Coyne to the club last summer had the chance arisen, and he's about the same age - though the issue of Colgan's lack of first-team football may count for more. I'm sure he'll get back into the swing of it soon enough though - and with Town's rearguard depending largely on youngsters such as Bennett, Atkinson and Widdowson it can only be a big help to have a wise old head behind them. Speaking of young defenders, Bradley Wood is set to retain the right-back slot after his heart-warming debut last Saturday, as one of the few bits of the worldwide web I can get to work (and which I normally wouldn't touch with your bargepole) says Robbie Stockdale's groin will keep him out for three weeks.

The exciting news from the opposition is that the crooked Spireites seem to be missing five players at the moment. Defenders Alan Goodall and Aaron Downes are out for the long term, and experienced centre-half Ian Breckin may have recently returned to Chesterfield after spells with Wigan and Nottingham Forest, but both he and non-scoring forward Drew Talbot have got the poorly. Long-serving midfielder Derek Niven will be missing as well, with a dead leg sustained in his last match, against Bradford. I always thought you got over a dead leg in about five minutes, but maybe Bradford do them better than your big brother. It's all immaterial anyway, isn't it, because Martin Gritton and Jack Lester will score three each, Peter Till make a surprise return to Chesterfield from Walsall on loan this afternoon to add another couple, and Paul Harsley knock one in during injury time just to take the piss.

But do we know why it's on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday? Do we know why it kicks off at 7:30 rather than 7:45? Will it be nearer eight o'clock before most of us get in anyway because Chesterfield are only going to open one turnstile on the away end again this season? And will the operator of that solitary turnstile have any change, or will hapless Town fans be forced to hand over a full 20 quid for the privilege of pissing against a wall? That's no metaphor, baby. It sure beats pissing in the wind.