Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 14 January 2011
14 January 2011
Chasetown think that five hundred or so Town fans will be trekking the 130 miles down the A38 to the FA Trophy match tomorrow. Now your Guest Diarist doesn't want to put anyone off, far from it, but if that prediction proves to be true then it will be an amazingly loyal turnout. Especially given this long run of consecutive away matches which will finally culminate in a cup game against part-timers who train Tuesdays and Thursdays and who got one more point than Glapwell last season to gain promotion. And even more so when you have no idea what kind of footballing performance from Grimsby you are going to get.
Manager Woodses was really quite sullen in this weeks paid-for match preview muttering darkly about "so-called critics" and stubbornly sticking to his line about how wonderful and bright the whole squad are in training. But he did tell us that defender Steven Watt is now officially better, that he might play him on Saturday but he needs another two weeks to get match fit. Later Woods added that there was no way he was going to play a weakened team tomorrow or rest anyone but he was considering making a few changes. As for Connell and Coulson apparently they have both declared themselves both free from injury and better from the bug. Connell said his hamstring thing actually bothered him less on Tuesday than in previous recent games. To be on the safe side Connell's big thigh muscle will be scanned on Friday in company with Charles Ademeno's knee.
Town have a couple of trialists in the building. Ashley Corker played for the stiffs up at Middlesbrough in midweek. Woodses said Corker, a young ex-Middlesbrough academy left back, 'did fine' and will train with the first team next week. Vincent 'Vinny' Faherty is a young Irish striker who has been playing with Danny North. Faherty's international clearance failed to show up in time so he missed the reserve game but has 'done OK in training' and will stay next week. This YouTube interview with Mr Faherty reveals a distinct lack of relish towards high balls played up to him so if he hears Neil Woods interview on Humberside this week when he said that he was "looking for an offensive player who can secure the ball", and if he translates that to mean hold-up player then he will know what he is up against. He might be great but then again he might be Danny North with an Irish lilt. There are some other clips of Faherty on YouTube, gentle reader, scoring goals. Surprisingly there are none of him missing chances or failing to win high balls. You have been warned.
"We're going into it aware of their strengths but also of their weaknesses - and also to try to capitalise on our strengths" says veteran Chasetown manager Charlie Blakemore. After the game it would be very helpful if he made Neil Woods aware of those perceived weaknesses would it not? In this league Town have an expensive squad who are great on paper and apparently brilliant in training - but pretty crap on the pitch most of the time. With Sinclair having gone dramatically and inexplicably 'off the boil' in recent games and Cummins only able to play half-decent when Sinclair does the Town midfield is totally ineffective again. Bypassed by their own defenders and bossed by the opposition in the last two games I despair when folk mutter about Connell's form dipping. Without a quality strike partner and deprived of any service from midfield he must feel it is a hopeless cause.
And on that positive note I'll wish you a safe journey if you are going and hope that we manage to beat this mid-table Evo-Stik part time side who got dumped out of the Evo-Stik league cup by Newcastle Town on Tuesday. If we draw by the way, the replay will be on Tuesday which I suppose would save us the embarrassment of a league match. See yer.