Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 16 February 2011

16 February 2011

Seventeen goals, a few thousand disappointed Charlton fans, and more loans than Stony Stratford Library. That's the enigmatic career record so far of James Walker, a 23-year-old striker who will line up on trial for Town's reserves against Gateshead, oooh, in about ten minutes' time. Walker was highly thought of by those who saw him turn out for the Addicks' youth side, but never quite broke through. This season the player has been on the books at Russell 'Sort It' Slade's Leyton Orient in the third division. Orient have released him after 14 appearances and no goals, although it looks like most of those appearances were as a late substitute, added your original/regular Diary in a reasonable attempt to introduce some optimism.

Town's 1-1 draw at home to Cambridge last Saturday was a disappointing result, of course, given the Us' run of defeats. But it was only a bad game of football if you're one of those people whose glass is half full - of dog piss. Neil Woodses did himself no favours, as usual, in his post-match interview on BBC Radio Humberside ("What went wrong out there today, Neil?" "I don't know"), but his chat ended with a cheerful mention of Rob Peet's recent trial at Manchester United. If you'd like to know more about the youth keeper's Old Trafford adventures, and you're affected by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, today's Grimsby Telegraph is the place for you. For one thing, the local rag continued its admirable practice of breaking up quotes into paragraphs that are sometimes as short as six words. But for another, it's actually broken up the whole feature into two separate articles. Sorry, are you still reading?

That's all for today, so I'll leave you with some links in case you're still at a loose end. The redoubtable Two Unfortunates blog today carries this piece from a member of the Cod Almighty team about Town's epic 1997-98 season. The Guardian website's brilliant football trivia series The Knowledge today refers to CA's very own Grimsby Reaper feature in a discussion of managerial sackings. And here's a quiz about football kits from the closing days of Town's real glory era. Thanks for reading - see you again!