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Diary - Tuesday 3 April 2012

3 April 2012

What does the phrase "a Buckley-style finish" mean to you, dear reader? Steve Burr manages a team from the west midlands, so when he says it, he means the sort of goal Alan Buckley used to score in his playing days as a prolific centre-forward for Walsall and Birmingham City. Your original/regular Diary, on the other hand, supports Grimsby Town, so when someone says "a Buckley-style finish" I tend to assume that a foolish chairman is making an ill-considered managerial sacking, undoing years of good work at his club and plunging it into years more of chaos and collapse.

The England under-19 team will face Austria this week in a European Championship qualifier at Blundell Park. The match kicks off at 2pm on Thursday, which probably excludes most people in paid employment, and will be contested by two teams of women, which probably excludes any misogynistic management staff in the vicinity.

And lastly today, GTFC and the Grimsby Telegraph are continuing their radical plan to build a youth team by watching young footballers in the local area and deciding which ones are best. "It's a great way for people in the local community to try to make a way in the game," says the Shorty manager about the Trawling the Town initiative. "Fans have a connection with a player that's grown up in the area." Word reaches the Diary that Shorty and Shouty will next week announce a similarly revolutionary scheme to try and win games by selecting their best players.