Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 10 July 2013

10 July 2013

We've been waiting for this day for ages: a diary where we can actually talk about a football match that that we care about (ish). Woop woop. So last night Grimsby Town played Cleethorpes Town at the Bradley Community Stadium (I presume Bradley Wood bought naming rights last year) and sadly we didn't score 12 goals. BOOOO! We won 2-0 though. Yay!

Your London Diary didn't make it down last night, for the obvious reason, but had two friends texting me every 10 minutes with a match report. So what happened? Well, apparently we started in a 4-2-3-1 formation. A what formation? A 4-2-3-1 formation. How does that work? I have no idea, but reports from the Telewag and Town's newly superb new official website use the words 'laboured' and 'struggled' when describing the first half. Their words, not mine. Interesting to see on the official site that Andi Thanoj's name is still in red. Talking of red, what's with the white band on the top of the new red socks? They look like Christmas stockings. Weird.

Anyway. Town had an 'unnamed' goalkeeper between the sticks. Seems his parents did give him a name and that name is Tom Turner. He sounds like a nice pale ale. Twitter and Google suggest that he was on the youth books at Bolton but more recently at Buxton FC. Young Turner apparently had very little to do. Interestingly, though, the Cleethorpes keeper for the second half was Miles Fenty (I hope he isn't either) making some very good saves and was seemingly vocal. Might be worth another look? I'm like a much cheaper Brian Stein.

Various reports seem to highlight Kerr, McLaughlin and Neilson as being very good on the ball with nice twists and turns. I love a nice twist and turn. Sexy. In the second half Town made 354 changes which saw us revert to the 4-4-2 formation. Would this work? Well, we scored two goals in the second half: you do the math. McLaughlin scored a bit of a 25-yard beaut. Aswad Thomas teamed up with Scott Neilson for his goal and apparently the astute Thomas was excellent going forward last night. He did a lot of that when he first signed – would love to see more of the same.

New signing Alex Rodman didn't start last night as he hasn't trainedproperly with the team. I like him. Nice voice. Good hair. Smart top. He's like a proper footballer from the 80s.

DEFENDERALERT: We had two new faces in defence last night. Yoof lad Ellis Humble played the first half with trialist Chris Doig, both supposedly giving good accounts of themselves. Nice to see Ellis get a start. Could be good defensive cover for the season. So who is Chris Doig? Well, he's a defender, and that's all we care about. Sign him quickly lads. Doig has played for Nottingham Forest, Northampton, Aldershot and York City, among others. If the 32-year-old Scot did sign, it would make him the fourth player we have signed this summer who played for York last season. Little fact for you.

What interests me most about Doig, though, is his name. I think it'd be great if he joined the Mariners, as his name is part of Grimsby heritage. Whenever I was younger and we didn't know where someone was, people would use the phrase "probably gone egging back o' Doigs". Anyone else? That's where my Uncle Andrew was most weekends. Look at this if you don't believe me. Doigs was a shipyard in Grimsby. Come on Chris, come to your spiritual home.

Also, don't forget you only have until Saturday to get your discounted season tickets. I can nearly smell the new season, I'm getting giddy. Bye for now.