Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 9 September 2009

9 September 2009

First the good news: Heywood is injured. Now the bad news: Linwood is injured. Now the potential good news: Atkinson may be back for Saturday's home game against Hereford. Now the potential bad news: Newell told the Telegraph: "You can't expect them to come straight back in like they've never been out. It will take a few games for players to get back up to anything like the fitness they should be."

So Town's absentee list has swelled to fairly massive proportions with nine senior players injured and three suspended. A few of them are due back soonish, your Guest Diarist thinks. But I expect physio Dave Moore has simply not had time to repeat his Mariners Player subscription channel video interview thingy, which we were promised a few weeks back would be a regular weekly feature. So we don't really know how the injured masses are doing in terms of contemplating a return to first-team 'action'.

It is generally accepted that Mr Heywood had a poor game last Saturday which cannot be explained away by ring-rustiness alone. Luckily for him, as happened early last season when he put in a poor display, an injury (in the form of a swollen, trodden-on foot this time) has come to his rescue. The unsung hero Linwood twisted his knee, but there is a slim chance it can be untwisted in time for him to play - a chance for him to show restive home fans that he can be the new Stick. God knows we need encouragement from somewhere.

The paint trophy away game at Hartlepool will be played on Tuesday 6 October with a 7pm kick-off, the superb new official site tells us, using a special widescreen-friendly font with embedded macrovision. Those wishing to attend this game, to plod down the trail of tears one more time, may take solace in the fact that tickets are a tenner and kids can get traumatised for free.

The next three Town matches are against clubs in the bottom eight like us. We need points, however early it is in the season. I'll be back tomorrow with a cunning plan. See yer.