Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 15 September 2010

15 September 2010

It's one of those tricky times without much GTFC news - but your regular/original Diary has been doing this since 2002. So fear not - I'm a dab hand at eking out a few words without needing to go Telewag and report that a player who phoned in one and a half limp performances for Town on loan during Russell Slade's first season has just signed for Stockport County or something. For me, the intention of this page has always been to help you fill a few minutes of your working day and give you a feeling of quiet satisfaction at getting one back against your boss. You know. Reading the diary is a bit like going for a poo at work.

Let's get it out of the way, then - Town's misspelt youth Darran Kempson will be suspended for one match after his sending-off in last weekend's defeat at Tamworth. I haven't seen anything about it on Town's normally superb new official website, but luckily the Grimsby Telewag is here to confirm the news. The visit of Fleetwood Town to Blundell Park this Saturday, then, will presumably see a full debut for Scott Garner, the 20-year-old centre-half who arrived from Mansfield in the summer and excelled in Town's pre-season programme. Despite clean sheets so far against some of the most feared strikers in the Conference Premier, the jury remains out on the Kempson/Watt partnership. So whisper it: if Garner's performances in the friendlies are anything to go by, that dodgy ref at Tamworth might have done us a favour by opening up a vacancy in Town's central defence.

Speaking of this weekend's opponents, the Diary came across a poignant reminder recently of our shared heritage - and of the hazardous lives led by our not-so-distant ancestors. Divers have found the wreck of the Laforey, a Grimsby trawler which sank in 1954 in terrible weather off the west coast of Norway, killing all 20 mariners on board. Though the loss was marked with the naming of a local thoroughfare, incidents like this were far from unusual, as we know, in the heyday of the fishing industry. Most of the crew who died were Grimsby men, but one, George Scott, came from Fleetwood. There may be few communities in Britain whose fathers and grandfathers daily stared death in the face as closely as our own, but our guests this Saturday surely represent one.

Here's an email to the Diary from Chris Beeley:

"Just read Tony Butcher's excellent report on the Tamworth match, absolutely spot on. The Tamworth game was only the second I've seen this season, the other being Histon, but I have to say Gobern and Peacock are driving me nuts. Gobern clearly has ability but seems to think he just has to turn up, and I'm probably fitter than Peacock at the moment. Embarrassingly, I called him Gavin in a moment of extreme frustration at the Histon game by the way, I know, I deserve to be banned from the ground for life.

"Speaking of which, I would like to add my twopence worth to Mr Butcher's assessment of some of the cretins who attended the match on Saturday. Being midlands-based these days myself I've experienced some of these knobheads at games in the distant and more recent past, eg Molineux, Bescot, etc. On being latched on to by chief cretin on Saturday, who seemed to think the world revolved around him being unfairly criticised by contributors to The Fishy, I was forced to tell him to go forth and multiply, taking his stupid song sheet with him. Fortunately he moved away at that point, and I don't think he reappeared for the second half, at least not in my vicinity. Such a shame that the magnificent support for the day was spoilt for me by one or two morons like this. Still, I suppose 'twas ever thus.

"Anyway, we have Wood, Connell, and Corner, so there is hope."

Thanks, Chris. 'Twas ever thus indeed - and, as your account confirms, Town's travelling support has mostly done the town proud so far this season. This, at least, comes as some source of comfort after the disgrace at Burton four months ago.

Lastly today, it would be remiss of the Diary not to mention the new issue of When Saturday Comes. WSC has a long history of Grimbarian involvement and the October 2010 issue features work from two Cod Almighty contributors - the more pertinent of which being an excellent piece by Jack Johnson about Zhang Enhua's interesting spell on loan to GTFC ten years ago. Buy a copy!