Cod Almighty | Diary

Dawning of a new era

7 July 2016

Devon Diary writes: Hello and welcome to the day after the day before. Paul Hurst fielded a different outfield ten in each half last night as Town ran out 3-0 winners as is now traditional in our now-traditional pre-season opener against Cleethorpes Town. According to Matt Dannatt in the Telegraph today, a new era of 4-2-3-1 is dawning in North East Lincs and if you want to know who played where, then Matt's report is where to look.

I'm none the wiser about that particular formation, being more au fait (can I say that post-referendum?) with 4-4-2 or 2-3-5, but according to Hurst, again in the Telegraph, he's going to be using our log-jammed pre-season to try out a few different systems. So, for now I'll not worry too much about how they line up as it's probably all going to change.

If you want to see how dashing Hurst's new charges look in the new away kit then have a gander at snapper Lee Blease's photos. 

Regardless of what 4-2-3-1 actually means in terms of football, Bogle isn't really a lone striker type. He needs a strike partner or a target man up front with him. And that brings us rather neatly/ham-fistedly (delete as appropriate, depending on how tetchy you're feeling today) to the latest rumours of new signings. This, of course, has been fuelled spectacularly by the Telegraph's innocent listing of out-of-contract strikers a couple of days ago.

Reuben Reid would seem a good fit for us but there will be competition for his signature since he turned down a new deal at Plymouth. In our favour would be us having both former Argyle full-back Ben Davies and the bestest fans in the world.

The Moses Emmanuel rumour won't go away and I'd like to see him join us just because of the chants it might generate. "His name is a porn film" or he was in the "Book of Exodus" would seem to have the edge over Reid's potential "his name is a sandwich" chant.

But both pale in comparison to Lenny's "his name is a shop" chant and rumours persist that our former Christmas video star will return to his spiritual home. Some fans reckon that would be a backward step and that he didn't score enough goals in 2015-16 – but he surely ticks Hurst's target man box. Bogle and Lenny? That would work for me.

Another striker looking for a club as of yesterday is Forest Green Rovers' big unit Jon Parkin, who was released from his contract by mutual consent. He's not one for us at the age of 34 (and also 34 stone) but he's still probably good for a few goals and bound to turn up at one of Rovers' rivals in the Conference. Anybody daring to link him with Town can stay back after school and write out "I will not start stupid rumours" one hundred times. Anyone linking him with Lincoln, however, will earn themselves a gold star if they can include a puerile comment about Parkin and Sam Rhead weighing in with plenty of goals.

Elsewhere, Town fans with a grasp of how absolutely fucking stupid the Football League's proposals for the Trophy are – and also dangerous for the game in this country long-term – will have been glad to see that some of the big clubs invited to take part in the competition have declined the opportunity. Manchester United and Liverpool are those rumoured to be none too keen on inclusion in the revamped competition. Now that firm details have been released by the Football League, a number of clubs and fans' groups are waking up to what it means. Port Vale fans don't want to play Stoke reserves. Luton say this isn't what they were asked to vote on. Stay tuned as this surely isn't over yet.

Whether the League persists or not, this isn't doing its reputation any good at all. The Trophy is still without a sponsor for this season and I can't imagine this kerfuffle is doing much to help with that. Want to sponsor a competition that fan groups up and down the country are planning to boycott? Didn't think so.

Expect a new signing as soon as this Diary goes live. Up the Mariners!