Cod Almighty | Article

by Andy Atkins

5 January 2010

In January 2008 Danny North was named League Two player of the month after scoring four goals in five games. He was the darling of Blundell Park, revered by the press and attracting interest from clubs all over the land. Twelve months later, the young striker couldn't even make the bench of a team staring relegation square in the eyes. Baffled? Yeah, so am I.

Northy, as he's affectionately known, became a first team regular during Alan Buckley's third (and final... probably) spell in charge of Town. In 37 starts for his hometown club the former Hereford School student notched up an impressive 16 goals including an emphatic hat-trick against Barnet. At the end of the 2007-08 season North became the first local lad to top the club's scoring charts since Kevin Drinkell in the early 80s – it seemed a star had be born. Rumour has it he was in line to partner Kristina Rihanoff in this year's Strictly Come Dancing and the council were all ready to name a street after him – but he got injured. Strictly never called again and the council decided to go with Antoine-Curier Terrace instead.

So that's what happened – well, sort of. Unfortunately, due to a series of niggling injuries, a flood of attacking options and Mike Newell's preference for the Didier Drogba tribute, North only managed the occasional cameo last season despite regaining full fitness in spring. This term, however, after a good preseason and a number of injuries and suspensions to key players, our Northy muscled his way back into the starting XI and almost instantly made an immediate impact by scoring the last-minute winner against Hereford in September. The fact that it was offside and probably the biggest miscarriage of justice since O.J. is completely irrelevant.