Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 8 February 2012

8 February 2012

"So then, could this be another double Wembley promotion season for Grimsby?" pondered one of your West Yorkshire Diary's work colleagues as he stirred the tiniest drop of milk into his early morning cup of tea. He's the work colleague who's employed to wander around the office and chat to everyone at inconvenient times, but whose job title suggests he should really be doing some proper work. "I dunno," I replied. I like to not think about these things. If I don't think about it, nothing bad will happen. "Whatever will be, will be," I added, which only made me think of Wembley.

I was surprised that my tea-drinking friend even knew about last night's 2-1 win at one-time bogey side Bath City, since the competition is not regarded as important enough to appear on various vidiprinters or sunny sports sites. He must have specifically searched for the result online before I arrived in the office.

Once upon a time, in an era not far away, going a goal down (especially away from home) used to result in certain defeat. Now, even without His Shoutyness in a Baltic Bath on a Tuesday night in front of 546 hardy souls, the Mariners showed they could fight back from a setback. A big well done to the 82 Town fans who made the Twerton trip last night, by the way. That's top support right there - a fantastic example for any youngsters watching at home.

Despite an iffy first half, the lonesome short one (who looks a bit like Sir John McDermott in this article's picture) explained that he was happy with the win. Everything went to plan. Elding avoided falling into the Ciaran Toner bracket by scoring in the match after he signed a new contract. And Shorty's decision to replace the club's top scorer with a striker who's been criticised by some supporters for not scoring enough goals while sat on the substitutes' bench turned out to be a very wise one indeed.

So then, that's one defeat in the last 21, undefeated in 10 - nine of those being victories. Which is great, and all that, but it would be so much more impressive if these statistics didn't have to work around that sodding Salisbury defeat in December.

On a side note, Cod Almighty would like to congratulate Michael Coulson on his 100th appearance for the club last night. It's become an even more significant milestone for lower league sides given the state the sport is in. Not many players stay at clubs for more than a year or two, so racking up a ton of games in just one shirt is a decent effort indeed. Is he our current longest-serving player or does that accolade go to Bradley Wood(s)? Will Bradderz be the next to reach the Town century? I'm not sure who else comes close. But it does seem that we've formed a squad that may not have to break up in the summer - whether we go up or not (unless Deadly John (Topcon) decides to intervene, of course).

Last up today, a lot of fans have been very factual about Anthony Elding on Twitter since those festive Lincoln games - and no matter how contentious some of the claims have been, I've been willing to believe each and every one of them based on nothing more than trust in my fellow fans. However, I think I may have stumbled upon the first false fact about our 6'1" striker - he's not 5'5" as Soccerbase claims. Toodles!