The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

It's better to have a gold brain than to have a gold chain

4 July 2017

Wicklow Diary writes: If you weren't on Twitter at the weekend, you 'missed' the kerfuffle around the startling discovery by @gtfc_exiles that a full stop has fallen off the end of the Town crest.

This isn't a one-off like a misprinted Abbey Road vinyl which leaves the finder quids in. A quick scan of recent shirts established that the crest has had the error since the 2013-14 season. This realisation has left Town fans frustrated in equal parts at the club's ability to cock up its own crest and the fact that it took four years for one of us to notice. We'll call that a draw and move on – but not before noting that the actual letters look a bit tipsy and may have pushed the full stop off in a drunken prank. Also, some of the crests on the official site are missing the full stop too. Let's leave the "should the fish have eyes?" debate for another day.

If you're the type of superhero who can overcome your OCD to buy a shirt with such a distressing fault, the club is kindly offering a tenner off to exiles outside the DN postcode at the moment. Debate all you like about designs but that deal makes the shirt about half the price of a pair of Premier League shorts. Seriously. Spurs are flogging their player spec pants for £55.

Thankfully, to distract us from the search for the missing full stop, we have some actual football to look forward to. Tonight's game at Bradley against Clee Town is expected to draw a sell-out crowd of twelve hundred. With another game at Bradley against Grimsby Borough on Thursday evening, it could be the first time we've played consective games in GY since we left Abbey Park in 1899. Or maybe we did the same last season, I can't remember.

Our summer signings Rose, Dembele, Kelly and Clarke are all available for selection tonight and Russell Slade will also run the rule over trialist striker Harry Cardwell. Slade may not yet have signed the players he wants and needs so far, but I'm reassured by the level of organisation and planning that he brings. 

Dismissing the short-term blips at Coventry and Charlton, I get a sense that Slade's approach should bring us a baseline of mid-table regardless of resources. It might not be the end of the world if Slade's targets sign elsewhere. It could give a plaform for players like Dembele, Clifton and the two Roses to, er, blossom. 

Yesterday gave us a fine account of Irregular Diary's experiences at the FSF's annual conference. There was only one omission – the author was too modest to mention her election to the FSF council for a two-year stint. We can seen from the excellent job Kris has done as GTFC's supporters' liaison officer role that the FSF has got itself a real asset. Congratulations on your appointment.