Cod Almighty | Diary

Still no

23 May 2018

The Dock Tower is being rebuilt. Decaying sections of the structure are to be repaired using bricks of a similar size and age to those they replace, in order to retain the overall character of the building. If this process is repeated over time, perhaps our great-great-great-grandchildren will one day look with the same affection we do upon a Dock Tower that appears identical to the building completed in 1852 but which comprises none of the original material used in its construction.

Your original/regular Diary can't help looking at this story and seeing a metaphor for another icon of Grimsby originating in the 19th century. The working lifespan of a professional footballer, of course, is not as long as that of a brick, so it's not a metaphor that will necessarily be very practical. But after the demolition job done on the heroic 2016 promotion squad, we can't overestimate the importance of keeping its foundation stone in place. James McKeown, old friend: in the nicest possible way, you are truly a brick.

Another building job will soon be taking place just along the M180, where little Scunthorpe United have opted to redevelop their current stadium rather than move to a new one. Glanford Park is famously the first of the new generation of England's professional football grounds; and ironically, of course, it's only these characterless cuboids on desolate industrial edgelands that should be knocked down and abandoned for a different location entirely. Northern Lincolnshire: getting everything perfectly wrong since the beginning of time.

Speaking of which, back at this end of the 70-kilometre cul-de-sac, our very own beloved GTFC appear to be adding to their long list of blunders by illegally imposing a surcharge on season ticket purchases made by credit card. Eagle-eyed Town fan Harry Ireland has spotted that the club is continuing to penalise supporters in this way despite credit card surcharges having been outlawed back in January. The club has decided to ignore Harry's tweet on the subject – so what do you say we give them another couple of days and then have a quiet word with North East Lincolnshire Trading Standards?

No, there still aren't any more players – but there are matches for them to play in. Town's first pre-season run-out of the summer will take place on 7 July at Cleethorpes Town (oh look, someone else has a new stadium), with a visit to York City two weeks later and a home game against Donny Rovers on 24 July. So that's just 44 days until the more excitable among us look at the irrelevant scoreline from a fitness exercise and forecast the securing of automatic promotion some time around mid-February. See ya.