Cod Almighty | Diary

The day outside glides by like ticker tape

6 July 2018

When they write the history of Grimsby Town Football Club they will ask how it was that the directors opted to persist in their desultory, bumbling efforts to build a new stadium rather than attempt to locate the club within the £60million deal struck this week to regenerate the local area. Then they will place this failure within the wider context of inertia and complacency that have dragged the club down since at least the dawn of the 21st century, and nobody will be surprised in the slightest.

Town's friendly at Rotherham, which was scheduled to replace the friendly at York which was cancelled because of the police, has been cancelled because of the police. At this point you'll probably be tempted to blame the police, although your original/regular Diary empathises to some extent with the plod in this case. Which of us here, once a season is under way, hasn't wished all Town's games could be cancelled?

But where does that leave the fanatics among you who would prefer to see the close season abolished and instead have all the football, all the time? It leaves you with an actual proper summer sport as the Mariners take on Grimsby Town Cricket Club this Monday (thanks to Richard Bedwell for pointing that out). And as well as the friendlies against Cleethorpes Town, Sunderland, Barton Town, Donny Rovers and Gainsborough, at some point between 14 and 20 July there'll be a Lincolnshire Senior Cup tie against either Scunny or, oh, Cleethorpes Town.

So that's at least six pesky football matches to get through before HA HA Veggie Green Rovers HA HA HA I'M SO FUNNY roll into town on the first Saturday in August. Is it just me or do there tend to be about three more matches in pre-season these days than there used to be 20-odd years ago? Discuss. Also, there must be a better throwing event than javelin and shot putt? Discus.

Naturally you are keen to know that Luke Summerfield has joined (Shaun Pearson's) Wrexham after his contract offer was withdrawn the other week, and once again we wish Wrexham would hurry up and get back in the League any time soon, preferably at the expense of someone like Stevenage. While we're leafing through the ex files, don't pretend you're not interested in the fact that Siriki Dembele scored early on in his first friendly run-out for Peterborough. Expect that sell-on clause to be defaulted on sooner rather than later.

Last up today, our lord and saviour Michael Jolley has assigned squad numbers to the members of his playing staff for the season ahead. Naturally, they comprise final proof of his infallible genius. Don't take yourself too seriously, and neither will I. See ya.