Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Friday 29 July 2011
29 July 2011
Your Guest Diarist is almost a vegetarian these days. In fact if I just stopped eating meat I really would virtually be one. But, after a morning squinting at the small print on packets of bacon to make sure they are not mostly water and have not been cured in half an hour flat it is a relief to come home and read a twitter from the Town fitness coach exulting that the Town players are very lean.
The bacon sandwiches seem to have been skipped as @Morty_1 exclaims: "used the skinfold callipers today to measure players bodyfats The #gtfc players are lean". But I digress, the whole point of bacon is that it should have been covered in salt and other secret things for quite a few days to draw the moisture out of it. So quite why wily supermarkets have taken to injecting it with water and then freezing it so they can slice the resultant horrendous product before thawing it, packing it and then having the temerity to call the bloody stuff bacon which doesn't fry but boils in it's own nasty grey brine is too long and gruesome a thought train to even finish.
Tonight you could say is a proper pre-season match in terms of it being a test for the new team. They are far enough down the fitness road, have avoided too many niggles by the sound of things (although Coulson also twittered that his ankle still needs cortisone to quieten it and Spencer has Dave Moore fussing over his back problem) and have started to work in training on how they plan to move the ball goalwards. We know from earlier manager interviews that work has been done as well on winning the ball back early when a move breaks down. How the team looks in midfield tonight against Doncaster is really, really important. Can they get enough of the ball and can they create something with it when they do?
Old man Disley will skipper again tonight and has told the Telegraph he wants that job all season. One of the managers confirmed they know who the new captain will be but won't say until the players know. So tell them, why don't you? One assumes that Disley and Pearson are the bookies favourites although I'd be tempted to give it to Serge Makofo to introduce a hint of unpredictable Dadaist surrealism rather than relying on Disley (who can't even shout never mind paint in watercolours) or Pearson (believed to be an intimate of the Rooney school of artwork). Still, maybe Shouty and Shorty have other captaincy criteria.
The club are still banging the season ticket drum quite hard announcing that 1,617 have been sold as against 1,750 at the start of last season. Bribes have been offered, threats have been issued. The bribes come in the form of letters sent to lapsed season ticket holders with the offer of free tickets for tonights friendly. The threat has been issued by Mr Wraith who has told the Telegraph that season ticket holders will get precedence for the Christmas away fixture at Lincoln where only, ahem, 1,400 tickets will be available. It's a long time since we took over a thousand to Lincoln - was that the day when Jones the Stick came of age and Peter Bore froze on the touchline?
The Shouty manager talked for over nine minutes to the Mariner Player subscribers but said nothing not covered in the paragraphs preceding this one. Except for him spitting some rather terse words about Lincoln seemingly wanting to make the game on Tuesday a yoof-only affair. The man seems only ever three sentences away from a towering rage. And that is a shame because the rest, the talk of fitness, formation, selection on merit, allowing the team to sort their own opposition-induced problems on the field wherever possible and the will-to-win team spirit etc all sounds good. Get him on that anger-management course Mr Fenty - you have turned over too many managers: why not invest in some training for the latest ones? See yer.