Cod Almighty | Diary

Solidarity with the stripes

16 July 2013

Grimsby's pre-season programme continues tonight with a visit to Brigg Town. This is something of a historic derby. The Cod Almighty results database shows that we played them first in 1880 and the best we had to show for our first five matches was a 3-3 draw. After that, we appear to have swiftly gained the upper hand. But let there be no mistake about it: we are bumptious young cousins compared to the Zebras.

Formed in 1864, they have played in black and white stripes throughout their history, predating even Notts County's adoption of the colours, with nary an experiment with salmon pink quarters, or whatever. That info about Brigg, by the way, comes from The Boys in Black and White. Compiled by a Bath City supporter, it is the kind of lovingly researched and written piece, available to anyone who cares to find it, that makes one glad to be living in a world with the internet, "a very unscientific list of the most interesting, obscure and on occasions plain weird teams from all over this planet who play in the black and white stripes." If it has a search function I can't find it, but I'm blowed if I'm going to tell you what month you'll find the Grimsby entry under. I will just say it is well worth finding (he's really nice about us), it is under an entry for KF Laci of Albania, and you will have far more fun perusing the site than you would if you just made a beeline for Town.

Your Middle-Aged Diary may have been too preoccupied with various victories over Australia over the last two weeks, but it was news to me this morning that Scott Neilson and Andi Thanoj have been injured. Neilson may feature tonight, and Thanoj at least no longer has his name in red on the squad list.

Rob Scott and Paul Hurst, now they have been given time in the job, are coming across far better in the media (by which, yes, I do basically mean the Telegraph) than they did when they first came to the club. It would admittedly be startling, and suicidally demoralising to allow a piece to appear under the headline "Grimsby Town bosses unimpressed by Youth-team talents". But read on and you'll get a pretty fair insight into what Paul Hurst hopes for from Paul Walker, Tom Charlesworth and other young players hoping to progress to the first team.

So there you go: I've pointed you to a brilliant blog and a Telegraph article, both worth reading. What are you hanging around here for?