The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

Hints and tips: from the recruiter's perspective

5 July 2017

Aaaaaaand they're off. Well, sort of. There are one or two items to take away from Town's pre-season curtain-lifter last night away at Cleethorpes Town. Perhaps the most immediately significant is a decent showing from Harry Cardwell, the former Hully forward who came in for a trial at the last minute and scored within ten minutes of his appearance off the bench at half time. Another is the role given to the two home-grown players not offered new contracts but given a chance to 'prove themselves' this pre-season.

It perhaps says something about the situation GTFC have reached with their own young players that both Max Wright and Josh Venney were played out of position in the left-back slot that Russell Slade has yet to fill after the departure of Danny 'Andrew' Andrew to Doncaster. It perhaps says "we're not taking this very seriously". Still, it perhaps says something else about Max Wright that he seemed to play a blinder even out of position.

As you will have seen, Town imposed themselves on the game after conceding twice early on, the highlight probably being Jamey Osborne's goal, shortly after the interval, from inside his own half. Slades interview, result unimportant, all about fitness, ya-di-ya-di-ya. Has your rushed and stressed original/regular Diary missed something in all this confusion, by the way, or were Harry Clifton and Sam Jones absent from the proceedings at Bradley?

One candidate to relieve poor Max and Josh from the misplacing of their endeavours is Liverpool prospect Sam Hart. You'll have seen the rumours on social media, and we now know they have a basis in fact, as Slades has confirmed that the player is "on our list". Slades has not, however, confirmed or dispelled rumours that Hart's loan to Port Vale last season was cut short after he, too, was played out of position at left midfield and centre-half.

Thoughts turn next to tomorrow evening's next gentle step forward, back at Bradley against Grimsby Borough (whose status, I think, is two divisions below Cleethorpes Town's). You'll hope everyone plays in their correct position. You'll hope for another chance for Cardwell. And you'd like to see Ben Killip get another go in goal, too, after retaining a clean sheet for the 45 minutes he got last night – although the beautifully named duo also competing for a goalkeeping contract, Sam Ramsbottom and Oliver Pain, will presumably have something to say about that.

My favourite bit about last night, though, was our little discussion on Twitter about what – if Real Madrid v Barcelona is El Clásico – we might call the GTFC/Cleethorpes Town derby. Click through below and read the replies. There are some real gems.

But I'll leave you with a link to a lovely, heart-warming new article here on CA, in which Ron Counte describes his meetings with a sequence of GTFC heroes, from Dave Worthington to Alan Buckley. Go read!