Cod Almighty | Diary

Woking weady for wingless wonders

1 November 2013

With the rest of the Cod Almighty team in the major metropolises of the Northern Hemisphere (not, on this occasion, Tetney), it is down to Middle-Aged Diary to fill in as a stop-gap replacement this morning.

Paul Hurst knows the feeling. Injuries to Alex Rodman, Scott Neilson and Paddy McLaughlin leave him with the options of playing Joe Colbeck and handing a debut to 17-year-old Caine Winfarrah, or playing without wingers tomorrow at Woking. Caine Winfarrah is surely rich anagram fodder - any suggestions?

The Telegraph carries an interview with Clayton McDonald which does not really justify the headline claim that he is "loving life at Grimsby Town" but does open up an intriguing possibility. Last week, CA went somewhat overboard with our 21st anniversary commemoration of Jim Dobbin's goal at Newcastle. The prelude to that victory was Alan Buckley desperately casting around for a loan goalkeeper. He landed an England international under a cloud after a few too many bloomers. Should anything happen to James McKeown, McDonald is big mates with Joe Hart.

To end in bathos, newly-published accounts show Grimsby Town made a loss of £453,000 in the year ending in May 2013. Proceeds from the FA Trophy final were more than offset by higher than forecast player wage costs. Two comparisons enter my head. Inured to the sums of money discussed quite casually in the higher levels of the game, a sum of less than half a million sounds trivial; a lot of people in the game would scarcely notice it but we are unlikely to meet those people unless we do make it to the third round of the FA Cup and then get an interesting draw. At the other end of the scale, in 1988, the Mariners' future was apparently in jeopardy over an unpaid £30,000 VAT bill. It all depends how benign you are feeling.

(Note: should anyone be unfamiliar with the industrial levels of cynicism needed to compile a CA Diary, the 'im' in possibility is silent.)