Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 6 September 2012

6 September 2012

Farewell, then, Robbie Stockdale. Town's outgoing youth team coach was brought to the club by Sir Alan Buckley in 2008 in what looked a cracking signing. It didn't quite happen the way we thought it would. Stockdale's Scotland caps, top-flight experience and lovely hair counted for little as he was kept from the first team by a series of injuries and Jamie Clarke. But after Neil Woodseses's ill-fated accession to the job of first-team manager, yer man took over the youth team and quickly established a reputation as one of the most promising young coaches on the Humber estuary.

Headhunted by Premier League Sunderland, Stockdale took charge of his final game as GTFC youth team manager last night. His charges did him proud, with a 9-1 win over Pontefract Collieries in a preliminary round of the FA Youth Cup. "Robbie, who is set top [sic.] take up his new position at Sunderland tomorrow, had asked his players to just go out and play," reports Town's newly superb new official website. Your original/regular Diary thought it only worked that way in the movies. I bet they didn't need a double training session either.