Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 15 July 2010

15 July 2010

Armchair Diary writes: Don't ask what happened to Idle Diary yesterday. I don't know. I'll pick up the pieces today though and see if we can't cover everything.

The sensible place to start would be Tuesday night's friendly at Frickley Athletic wouldn't it? I can't believe that Cod Almighty is your only source of Town news (unless you're not a Grimsby Town fan and are just reading our site for the sheer hell of it) so you probably know the result. If we are your only source of Town news then we're delighted about that and must apologise for not telling you yesterday that the match ended as a 3-0 win for the Mariners, with Josh Fuller scoring in the first half before Frickley banged in a couple of own goals. So there you go. If you go to the SNOS you can probably watch highlights from the match. Oh no, not yet.

The SNOS does at least give us some idea of the line-up though. Kenny 'KA' Arthur in goal - yep. Bradley Wood at right-back, Mark Gray and Scott Garner as centre-backs with Lee Ridley at left-back. OK. Hang on, who's Lee Ridley? I'm not following all this squad rebuilding closely enough. Anyway, Peter 'Hetero' Bore was pushed on to right midfield with Josh Fuller (who has silly hair) on the other wing and Mark Hudson and Micky Cummins in the middle. Yep, I know all them, that's fine. Michael Coulson and Lee Peacock up front. Gotcha. There were changes aplenty as the game progressed but that's the point of these friendlies isn't it? Give as many players as possible a decent run-out and see what they've got and what's still to be done.

Incidentally, did we know Ben Chapman was at Frickley now? Or is this another example of me really not keeping up with things? And did anyone else chuckle at the line-ups given at the bottom of that SNOS article? The ref has a funny name, yes, but what amused me more was "Clarke (Sturdy)". Is he a solidly built fella? I want to know.

Let's have a chat with Neil Woodses, shall we, and see what he reckoned to the performance the other night. We would if we had access to him but we don't. We do have access to Mariners Player though, so that'll have to do. Coo, isn't the camera in very close on the side of his head? A few players had to play the full match (which wasn't part of the plan, seemingly) due to others carrying minor strains but no harm done as it wasn't a hot day and the rain meant they could move the ball around a bit, but the players did tire after an hour or so. No injuries to report, other than Bradley Wood (who "without a shadow of a doubt" was the best player in the two pre-season games so far, apparently) who picked up a little knock in the last minute but Woodses doesn't seem concerned about it.

What else? New boy Alan Connell got involved a lot when he came on for the last 20 minutes or so and it's important to get him right for the start of the season. The midfield didn't have control of the game as much as the gaffer would have liked and overall the players were a long way short of where Woodses wants them to be. But he's confident they will get there. Stand still, man! The youngsters fitted in well, didn't look at all out of place and are expected to compete for first-team places as the season progresses. All sounds quite positive doesn't it?

The interview with Woodses finishes up with a chat about Adrian Forbes, who, in case you didn't know, is training with Darlington for a few days. He won't be playing any games for them though, as Town "wouldn't allow that, for obvious reasons". So obvious that I have no idea what these reasons are. Maybe he's one of these players who is ace in training but crap on matchdays so Town are trying to con suitors into only seeing the good in him. He looks very jolly in the pic on the SNOS though, so I hope he finds a club that wants him.

And Forbes is by no means the only Grimsby-related player on the move. Olly 'Off!' Lancashire has joined Walsall, Steve 'My Lord' Mildenhall has taken the "wasy" decision to sign for Millwall after having his contract at Southend cancelled. Another ex-member of the Town defence with a new club is Matty Heywood, who has gone to Gateshead on trial, apparently. Why the story is only being carried by a Burnley fan site is beyond me though. Oh, hang on, it's mentioned in passing in the next story I was coming to, about Paul Bolland training with York City. It's all go at this level isn't it?

By the way, Matt Pakes and Felix Oliver-Tasker, I haven't forgotten about you: I'm just leaving your missives so tomorrow's diarist has something to do.