Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 9 August 2011

9 August 2011

I woke up this morning and thought it was the eighties. The Tories are in power and there has been rioting on the streets of London. Unemployment is high, the economy is shit... look to your left and there's Ed Miliband. God give us strength.

Quite apart from the fact that golf makes the most hideously mind-numbing sport as a spectacle, I'm open to believe that it can be quite enjoyable to play, based on my rather pleasant and victorious experiences at the now defunct crazy golf course near Cleethorpes train station. Golf is an obsession for some footballers, who seem to take great pride in knocking a small ball into a small hole from miles away using nothing more than a glorified stick.

As you can probably tell, your West Yorkshire Diary is not a fan of the big version of golf. I must have missed that day at school when they taught us it during PE. But just because I don't fully appreciate the thrill you get from spending a lot of time walking around waiting for others to finish in front of you, it doesn't mean everyone feels that way - least of all our beloved football club. The Mariners have organised a golf day to take place next Monday to raise money for the youth team - which, of course, receives significantly less funding now we're out of the Football League. The Grimsby Telegraph reports that you can bid to have the next Charlie I'Anson or Andy Thanoj as your caddy. Teams of four are needed and it costs £120 per team to enter. You'll get watered, fed and will probably meet some of the town players and management staff throughout the day. Businesses can even 'sponsor a hole'. Yes. Get involved - it's for a great cause. The Mariners have a good recent history of giving youth players debuts in the first team (another problem is keeping them there). But without funding we may not be able to enjoy the satisfaction we get from seeing home grown players like Bradley Wood and Sam Mulready turn out for the Mighty Mariners. They're from Leicester and King's Lynn? Oh. Still, they honed their skills at GTFC and that's what matters.

Shorty reckons he'll have a really fit squad to win games in the last 20 minutes this season, as opposed to one that throws them away like last season. And when we start smacking late goals in, as we've done in pre-season, we can all say it was down to the first three weeks of pre-season training when the players were always tweeting how knackered they were (in between the friendly banter that continued from the golf course (mentioning no Coulsons names).

Finally today there is a nice article on the SNOS that reports how Shorty, Shouty, Garno and Eagle(s) paid 19-year old Town fan Matty Dawson a visit at Louth Hospital yesterday. Matty, who suffers from a form of cancer, was given a Town shirt and squad number 24 for the season. It's always good to see Town players and staff out in the community.

After all these friendlies and new signings, we've hit a period of relative calm. A few days ago I was approaching this Fleetwood game demanding a win, but as the big day nears and the absence of pre-season matches allows more time for rational thinking, I'm wondering... just what should we expect from our very first game of the season against the favourites for promotion?