Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 2 April 2010

2 April 2010

Was Paul Crichton really with us for only three years? I could swear it seems like double that. Hello readers ‒ it's your original and once-regular Diary back for a quick Good Friday peek at all the news that's fit to copy and paste.

Most of the news these days concerning our beloved/beloathed (delete as applicable) Mariners, of course, simply follows the formula X says Y, where X is a randomly chosen member of the Grimsby Town FC playing staff and Y is "uh, dunno, yeah, we'll try and win the game or something". The Diary, then, can't even be arsed to read what Joe COVER YOUR MAN! Widdowson has to say for himself, or even the admirable Lee Peacock, because we've all read it a gajillion times before. We all know the Telewag has to fill that space somehow but, like most fans, all the Diary wants is something entirely greater to the surrender at Rochdale eight more times between now and the end of the season, which is not so much asking the Earth as simply requesting payback for all those other surrenders we sacrificed time and money to witness before the likes of Peacock arrived to stiffen up the side.

As ever, Cod Almighty's match preview will bring you much of the stattery and factitude you could wish for, but who will be the men asked to record a third successive home win tonight? All eyes are on the goalkeeping position, as Nick Colgan has knackered himself up, and Leigh Overton hasn't, but the club are saying he has, so that they don't have to admit that they don't think he's ready for first-team football. The likelihood is, then, that Mark Oxley will make his second appearance for Woods's battlers, having just crossed the bridge for a second spell on loan from global finance's King$ton Communication$ FC. The Diary didn't see Oxley's other turn-out for Town, in the 2-0 defeat at Dagenham a month ago, but from what some supporters say it wasn't a performance to fill you with confidence. Then again, just 12 months ago some supporters relentlessly booed and jeered Wayne Henderson for most of his GTFC debut, so what the hell do they know.

Elsewhere in the sides, Jamie Devitt returned to training earlier this week and is supposed to be starting against the Cobblestones. Paul Linwood and Tommy Wright are still injured though, and joining them on those legendary sidelines, unfortunately, could be Ashley Chambers, who has recently marked himself out from the other 913 forwards to have appeared for the Mariners this season by demonstrating a peculiar ability to score goals. Northampton are diminished by a trio of knee injuries to winger Andy Holt, midfielder Kevin Thornton and goalkeeper Chris Dunn, it says here, and their manager isn't relishing the trip. "It will be a cold and horrible place," says Ian Sampson, and who could argue with that? One suspects that the Stately Fentydome, should it ever be built, would somehow fail to strike the same fear into the hearts of our visitors. But it'd sure scare the hell out of me.

Danny North, Danny North, Grimsby through and through. You had a trial with Scunthorpe, but Alfreton signed you.

Lastly today, let's play a game! Have a read of the Twohundredpercent blog and this piece from Sky Sports and see if you can work out which site pays its writers.