Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 29 September 2009

29 September 2009

The Diary guesses that if I were a young professional footballer still reeling from the massive vote of no confidence that is the award of a contract lasting no more than six months, then I'd be looking to get noticed by other clubs as well. The decision of Ed Eley to sign for Mansfield Town in the Conference on a month's loan, then, is quite understandable; after all, if Tommy Forecast is to be preferred to Leigh Overton, and Overton to Eley, then the 19-year-old goalkeeper would seem unlikely to get a sniff of first-team action at Blundell Park during those six short months. His move to Mansfield follows another loan in which he joined a fellow former Myspace Mariner in Josh Burge at Ilkeston Town of the Conference North, but the Diary is unable to ascertain whether he made the first team there either. Still, a six-month contract is better than no contract at all, which is the fate that befell many graduates of Town's much-vaunted youth system at the end of last season - and this whole story is worth it for the very enjoyable photo of Eley on Town's superb new official website, in which he bears the expression of a young man who has been asked how many beans make four.

Staying with the Mariners' blooming crop of talented youth, Bradley Wood's excellent debut for the first team against Darlington last Saturday has been rewarded with a place in the official fourth division team of the week thing produced by the Press Association. In the closing weeks of last season the team of the week thing was virtually owned by Rob Atkinson, but Wood's selection is the first for a Town player in the 2009-10 campaign. Meanwhile Dickensian urchin Josh Fuller was the scorer as the Yoof drew 1-1 with Bradford at the weekend in a game they apparently ought to have won comfortably. Now, where have we heard that before?