Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 2 August 2011
2 August 2011
First there was the rumour that suggested Lincoln City manager Steve Tilson was going to send out a load of yoofs for the Lincolnshire Senior Cup final tonight at Sincil Bank (7.30pm kick off), and then there was that story about how, actually, he wasn't. Yes, ladies and gentlemen of Grimbarian extraction (or association), you can expect a strong Imps side with no hint of experimentation - just ignore the four trialists.
"It is a pre-season game and we will be using it as a pre-season game," says Tilson. Your West Yorkshire Diary has been thinking: is it a pre-season game? Pre-season games allow you to change your squad nilly-willy, while the Lincolnshire Senior Cup says you can only field 'registered' players and I imagine there will be rules on the number of substitutions teams can make. So I don't think it's a pre-season game in the strictest sense, if I'm being picky - which I am, because I'm annoying like that.
The other thing I'd like to know about this cup final is whether the winning team will have to stand on a temporary cardboard cut-out stage, plastered with sponsors' names, while ticker tape rains down on the jubilant players as they hold the shiny trophy aloft.
It's long been a practice of Town's PR department to make its website superb, new and official. And, apart from a few high-profile hiccups that we won't mention again (because everyone deserves 36 chances), it has shown over the years to have its finger on the throbbing pulse of everything that is football in the Grimsby vicinity. So it's with disappointment and a heavy heart that I have to declare how the SNOS failed to mention that Robbie Stockdale's batch of MySpace-migrating Facebookers lost 3-2 against Boston United's under-18s yesterday afternoon. But that's a small story and in no way competition for the really important news - like setting up betting accounts online, or being told to wear smart gear for a fish and chip supper in McMenemy's for a tenner.
Damian Spencer, Town's crock for 2011-12, will need more time to recover from his groin, hip and back injuries, and hopes not to get ill again in the meantime. I'm always concerned for the future of any Town player when he misses pre-season because they spend half the year trying to get fit by playing in the first team - usually as a sub in the last few minutes of games that we're already losing, and so they become associated with defeats. But at least he's enjoying the 'different' culture of Grimsby. It's certainly different alright.
It's likely that Spencer might not be risked tonight, especially as there's an opportunity for him to get some game time at Brigg tomorrow. One man who will continue to fight back from his own injury patch is Darran Kempson, who performed admirably for a full 90 minutes against Gainsborough at the weekend. He's buzzing at these happy days. Anthony Church will miss out with a hurty back. What formation and what personnel Scottses and Hurstseses choose to use remains to be seen. I'd like to see Rob Eagle 'in the hole' again, because it gives me great pleasure to use that particular football expression among similar-minded friends as we giggle and snigger at yet another smutty innuendo.