Cod Almighty | Diary

Cry cod for Nehemiah, Grimsby and Saint George (Kerr)

14 January 2014

Did you wake up this morning expecting to read that Paul Hurst thinks we are out of the title race? Or that Jamal Nehemiah Fyfield has joined Town with no ambitions for the club or for himself? If so, you would be pleasantly surprised, except that you would obviously have slept through the last 25 years of local sports reporting. The rest of you will be turning to Cod Almighty hoping your Middle-Aged Diary has something original and incisive to say. Don't hold your breath.

In a web of interconnectedness, Jamal Fyfield, formerly of Maidenhead United, joins the Mariners as we attempt to follow up our victory over the Magpies with victory at Forest Green. At the same time, Chorley – another tiding of Magpies and victors over Forest Green in the second round of the FA Trophy – will take on Tamworth for the right to play Grimsby in the FA Trophy quarter-finals.

All right-minded people will be hoping that Chorley succeed. Not because we harbour any dislike for the people or players of Tamworth. But because we really can't bear a third round of "Your town smells worse than our town" tit-for-tat (tat being the operative word) between our respective sets of local journalists.

Forest Green, of course, were recent victims (or beneficiaries – just look at Scunthorpe's form since they dismissed Brian Laws) of the Grimsby Reaper. Since we beat them in October, they have been knocked out of both cups by teams lower down the league pyramid but they have won six and drawn one of their ten league games.

Tonight's trip to Nailsworth is the first of four challenging-looking matches, with Gateshead – currently a place behind us in the table but also in league action tonight – our next opponents followed by trips to Wrexham and Cambridge. Come through these four games with a decent points haul and we really will be able to count ourselves as title challengers.