Cod Almighty | Diary

Everybody hates a tourist

17 October 2013

Today is all about strikers. Or forwards. They're not quite the same thing, are they? Liam Hearn is a striker. Tony Rees was a forward. Mickael Antoine-Curier was a sponge pudding.

First up, your original/regular Diary is keen to know how Town's frontline will look this Saturday when Forest Green explore the frozen wastes of North East Lincolnshire. The keenly awaited return of the Hearn/Cook line-up at Salisbury last weekend seemed a bit of an anti-climax. So will Grimsby's current favourite Yorkshireman Ross Hannah return from injury? Are we ready to appreciate Lenell John-Lewis at last?

Hannah, as we know, ran out for the stiffs against Scunny's youth team yesterday and looks a decent bet for some action this weekend. For his retail-monickered teammate, though, the outlook is hazier, as Lenell had a scan on his busted foot yesterday and needs to rest for at least another week. For those of you wishing to be closer to John-Lewis, Town's newly superb new official website has been posting almost minute-by-minute updates on the player's fitness, in a web project that can only be described as a sort of Online Shop.

Another forward, Young Dayle Southwell, was given a new contract back in the summer. But with GTFC having become one of those clubs that have about seven strikers in their squad, opportunities for Young Dayle have been few this season. Accordingly, the lad is off out on loan for a month to Harrogate Town – or, to follow the football journalist's rules of arbitrary possessive attachment – to John McDermott's Harrogate Town.

Back on the NSNOS, the NSNOS is asking whether Luton's Michael Reddy is the Mariners' greatest ever striker. The Diary's response? Sandpaper ticklemonk pioneer hamster. Well, if you ask a silly question.

Aaaaaand finally, next week marks the 21st anniversary of a spectacular goal scored by a non-striker. Here at Cod Almighty we're publishing a couple of things to mark the occasion. Next week's will look at the wider context of the goal and the match. Today, the first of the two articles asks: "Where were you when Jim Dobbin scored?" CA readers have shared their recollections of that seismic strike up at Newcastle in 1992. Go have a read, and maybe share your memories with us too.