Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 20 October 2010

20 October 2010

"We will never put a weakened team out not to try and win," Neil Woods promises Grimsby Telegraph readers ahead of this Saturday's FA Cup qualifier. But with Richard O'Donnell denied permission to play by his parent club Sheffield Wednesday, and injured resident keeper Kenny Arthur still a week or so short of full finger functionality, it looks like a weakened team is exactly what will be lining up for Town this weekend. There's no word yet from plucky little Scunthorpe on whether they'll allow O'Donnell's fellow loanee Andrew Wright to take part at the Lamb, but Town's other temp, Danny Carlton, has also been withdrawn from the game by Bury. It is a moot point, however, given the limited nature of Carlton's contribution to recent games, whether his absence can actually be said to weaken the team in any way.

Your regular/original Diary would like to apologise for the absence of yesterday's Diary - but hey, if the club's falling apart around us, then it's only right that Cod Almighty should fall to rack and ruin in a sort of chaotic homage. Had there been anything here yesterday, it would, I am sure, have reported that young fringe players Mark Gray and Nathan Dixon have gone on loan to Spalding United of the Northern Premier League. It would have been too early, however, to report a fabulous win for Town in the FA Youth Cup last night. GTFC's faltering first team may have failed against Kidderminster the other week, but the Myspace Mariners triumphed by five goals to one against Harriers' youth, with a hat-trick by 17-year-old Sam Mulready taking his total for the season to a Connell-bettering 14. The Town kids face Stourbridge in the next round early in November.

By the by, I found out Mulready's tally for the season from the Twitter feed thing for Town's matchday programme (the youth team top scorers page on the SNOS just gives a list of names with a Football League Youth Alliance logo over the top of the bit where their goal totals should be). Interestingly, the programme has also been Tweeting frantically that Robbie Stockdale has made such an awesome start as GTFC youth team boss that he's become a front-runner for the managerial vacancy at his old club Middlesbrough. It's another issue, of course, whether you set much store by this. And again, it's another issue whether an official communications channel of the football club should be putting this sort of thing about, true or untrue. Still, if you're on Twitter, it's certainly worth following @gtfcprogramme, although I'm not sure I'd bother with @codalmighty.

And that's all for now. Thanks for reading, keep the faith, and one day Bakary Bojang will find a club.