Cod Almighty | Diary

Not with a bang, but a wimple

26 February 2015

Now then, buggerlugs! Welcome to Thursday with your original/regular Diary, with excitement starting to build towards a home game this weekend, the team pushing for promotion, and the crushing certainty of a sullen, glowering crowd of 3,200 booing the Mariners off at half time with the score at nil-nil.

But soft – what news from Meggies? In a development perfectly timed right after a 1,000-strong, inflatable-packed standing terrace roared Town on to victory at Barnet, the club has unexpectedly announced the introduction of safe standing at Blundell Park. So those gloomy, less-atmosphere-than-the-moon home games should soon be a thing of the past, right? RIGHT?

The opening of a terrace at Blundell Park for the first time in 20 years represents good sense on the part of the club and good work by the Mariners Trust, which has been collaborating with GTFC on the move. Safety concerns over standing are largely a thing of the past given the developments in both rail seating technology and crowd control that have taken place since the Taylor report. It would be remiss of Cod Almighty not to point out, however, that the official figure of 969 Town fans present at the Hive last weekend is almost 100 more than the North Terrace's official capacity.

Two forwards who won't be playing for Town against Braintree this Saturday are Hamish Watson, who looks set to get game time on loan at Gainsborough, and Ollie Palmer, who doesn't. The on-loan Mansfielder apparently won't be "rushed back" from his hamstring injury, with sympathetic GTFC manager Paul Hurst telling the Telewag: "The ball's in Ollie's court, in terms of it being his body and he knows how he feels." It would be remiss of Cod Almighty not to point out that this is somewhat in contrast to Hurst's recent explanation of another player being released, when he basically accused Scott Neilson of malingering, but what do we know, eh.

Fentydome news now, and Town's busy non-chairman has rubbished the suggestion by a North East Lincs councillor that the club consider turning King George V Stadium into a football ground, instead of building over a load of allotments. Fenty being Fenty, of course, it would be too much to expect for him to explain reasonably and calmly why Chris Shaw's suggestion wouldn't be viable. Instead he has to trash it and deride the idea as "barmy". This is the man, remember, who can't understand why all those concerned residents aren't eating out of his hand.

Sigh. So last up today, the new craze of fancy dress on the away terraces of the Conference Premier continues to gather pace, craziness and fanciness. My favourite idea is for hi-vis steward jackets at Alfreton, but as far as we have been able to glean from Twitter, travelling Townites are also planning wigs at Woking and wellies at Welling. It's just a shame this idea didn't begin slightly earlier in the season. Imagine the fun that could have been had at Nuneaton.