Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 18 August 2010

18 August 2010

Consider that one of those first two opponents was within a game of promotion last season. Consider the amount of money splashed by the other this summer. Consider, also, that in Brodie and Tubbs they boast two of the most feared strikers in the league. And I think we'd all have settled for four points and two clean sheets from these first two games, wouldn't we? Now consider that Town are at home this Saturday to Hayes & Yeading United, who were roundly thrashed last night. And I think we'll all agree that if we don't double the five goals slammed past Hayes by part-time Eastbourne Borough, then the only available course of action is to sack Neil Woodses, imprison Dave Moores, disembowel the catering staff and close down the football club. Any less severe measure would smack of just the kind of small-town defeatism that got us into this mess in the first place.

Your original Diary has noticed a couple of interesting awards in the last few days. One was the out-of-court settlement, revealed back at the weekend, which awarded 5,000 English pounds from the pocket of John Fenty (Con) to former GTFC manager Mike Newell, who was taking legal action against the club for being sacked without the use of Queensberry Rules. Consider that he's been trying to take Luton for several million and I think we'd all have settled for that at the start of the day, wouldn't we? The second award was three awards, to be precise - all in the way of national recognition for The Mariner, Town's matchday programme, which is notably less bad than those of most other clubs. Which begs the question, of course: if their programme is so good, how do GTFC manage to make their official website so spectacularly awful?

Lastly today, we've had an email from Toronto-based Mariner James Booth. "Dear Diary, Nice to see a Town win for a change," he writes, succinctly. Oh, hang on, there's another bit. "Found this while trawling the web. Seems like a good summary of Town kits over the years. Maybe it's just a front for Toffs but does not seem overly commercial so I thought I would forward it on." Interesting stuff, James - thanks. Indeed, now that the campaign to bring back red socks has ended in success, 2011 will surely be the moment for the Mariners to honour their traditions and revert to that legendary shirt with the chocolate and blue quarters.