Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 22 December 2009

22 December 2009

Given the Mariners' form at the time, the Diary figured it wouldn't be such a great loss when I was negotiating Christmas family visits with Mrs Diary a few weeks ago and said it would be OK for us to be visiting her family down south when Town take on Port Vale at home on 28 December. After the breath of fresh air that was the Morecambe game last Friday, though, I can't bloody wait to see Woodses' team in action again. Typical Town - even when they're good, they're still letting you down.

Actually, it was more of a freezing Arctic gust than a breath of fresh air, wasn't it? Still, if having a go at Michael Leary in the Diary automatically results in his best performance of the season by far, I might have to think about doing it more often.

Before we turn at last to today's GTFC news, the Diary would like to point you towards the first part of an absolutely wonderful three-part article which Cod Almighty is publishing over Christmas. Written specially for us by a football historian called George Myerson, it's the story of Sid Wheelhouse, who was Town's captain when the First World War broke out and ended up enlisting in the army. As soon as you've finished the Diary, be sure to have a read.

Today's GTFC news: Matty Bird and Grant Normington have gone out again for a further spell on loan at Frickley Athletic.

In the inbox today the Diary finds an email from John Darnell, who reprises the topic we looked at here last week: Arsenal kicking the shit out of Town legend Jackie Bestall in the FA Cup sixth round tie between the sides in 1936. "No issue here," asserts John. "Bestall was cynically targeted from the kick off - I know because my father was there. He was deeply traumatised by the result. Possibly the 10-hour coach journey in freezing February contributed. He told me about it every time the word 'Arsenal' was mentioned until his death thirty years later; also any team employing rough tactics was labelled as 'playing the Arsenal Plan'. Good job he's not around now - I saw them at Bournemouth last month, not a pretty sight!" Thanks for sharing that, John - it's great to get more insight from so close to the match. These days, of course, referees are much tougher on premeditated violence and there's no way, say, Gary Cohen would be deliberately targeted and fouled all game, and then booked by the referee for complaining, is there? Oh. No, I haven't got time to look up which game it was.

Thanks to the other readers who've been in touch - we'll get to your emails later in the week. In the meantime, don't forget that piece about Sid Wheelhouse. See you tomorrow!