Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 20 January 2012

20 January 2012

The good news this Friday afternoon is that Town are at full strength for tomorrow's match. For most of the past decade, of course, 'full strength' meant 'not actually that strong at all, despite no-one being injured'. Today, however, the Mariners boast an outrageously good run of results stringing back two or three months now. Today 'full strength' means 'no-one is injured, and there isn't a Town fan alive who isn't looking at the league table and rubbing their eyes vigorously in total disbelief'.

The rather less good news, as your original/regular Diary sees it, is that tomorrow's visitors to Blundell Park are Bath City. The Romans, of course, have continued to torment the Mariners in three league meetings since their infamous FA Cup win at BP way back in 2009, when the sides were two divisions apart. And while they might be bottom of the league, they're not on a bad streak of form themselves. Bath boss Adie Britton is pointing out to anyone who'll listen that his side has made a considerably better job of cutting the deficit than George Osborne, having moved rapidly from 13 to four points away from safety. I think I saw somewhere that they've only lost three of their last 14 games as well.

Looks like that full squad could be needed, then. Ian Miller will probably rejoin Scott Garner in central defence tomorrow. We'd expect Andi Thanoj to continue in midfield alongside the returning Craig Disley. So at left midfield, that just leaves one of Frankie Artus, that McCarthy lad from Bury, Kiernan Hughes-Mason and Serge Makofo, in order of how likely we think they are to get picked.

Poor Serge. I fully expect a heart-rending televised appeal to find him a new owner soon. "For just £300 a week, you could give this cruelly neglected puppy-dog winger a home. Look at him, scampering away from that full-back... Serge just loves life! Oh, he's fallen over."

Lastly today, one cruelly neglected former Mariner who has found a new home is Conor Marshall. I was really quite impressed by young Marshall - sorry, for some reason I've decided to start talking like your grandad - when I saw him in some of Town's pre-season friendlies. But with Bradley Wood and Gary Silk on the books his route to the first team always looked a tricky one. He's been adopted by Boston United though, bless them. Good luck Conor. Oh, and Straight Peter Bore has signed a new deal with struggling Harrogate Town, also of the Conference North. We're as surprised as him that nobody else came in.