Cod Almighty | Diary

Non-refundable

30 April 2015

“Third time’s a charm!” they say.

Well, let’s hope so eh?

Tonight, as I’m hopeful those of you of a black and white persuasion might know, is the first leg of our Conference play-off semi-final. After two seasons of play-off woes, us Mariners face the long trip down to Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium for the first leg of the two.

Now, your North-West Diary knows that our trip down to South Hampshire won’t be as easy as our last, having secured a 1-0 victory in late January courtesy of a first half Ollie Palmer strike, but we’re still hopeful. Having done the double over ‘The Spitfires’ this season, they will be determined to gun us down and fly right through to the Wembley final on 16 May. (Do you reckon they noticed the Spitfire puns? Do ya, Do ya?)

As expected, ticket sales for tonight’s first leg are going well, despite the unignorably huge geographical distance between the two clubs, especially on a week night, the official site last night reported sales of 500+. I fully expect there to be 800+ fans representing the Mariners tonight, and full credit to every single one of them.
Tickets for the return match are now on general sale, again with the official site claiming sales of over 3,300 tickets yesterday evening. It's a very good idea to start selling them before the first leg in my opinion. If we get battered 12-0 tonight, there’ll be no returning them tickets! Mwah ha ha!

According to official and reliable sources (And BBC Radio Humberside), C. Jolley has been ruled out of tonight’s clash. Apparently Hurst has known his team for a few days now, but is keeping his cards close to his chest ahead of the big match. Oh Paul you big tease. With the indefinite absence of Gregor Robertson at Left-Back, it’s thought recently crowned Player of the Year, and all round good lad Carl Magnay will provide the cover, with either Paul ‘Biggers’ Bignot or Danny ‘Please don’t bring him on’ Parslow at right-back.

For those of you lucky enough to be at the game tonight, safe journeys and best wishes as always. But for those of you who, like me, will be rushing home from work, throwing off you Primark shirts and pulling on your black and white stripes in haste to watch BT Sport’s incredibly condescending coverage, take a moment to watch this gorgeous (and slightly outdated) footage from 1998 of our last successful play-off campaign to fill you with ecstasy, pride and passion, and rekindle your love for Kevin Donovan. I’ll see you on the other side.