Cod Almighty | Diary

Otis is lifting us higher

28 November 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: The Magic of the Cup. Yes indeed. Comparing Town's previous away trip – to Hartlepool – with Saturday's game at Cambridge, they couldn't have been more different. The atmosphere, the performance and the result were all excellent. And a 90th minute winner to send us fans home buzzing. No need for BOTB Diary's taxi, that's for sure.

It was also lovely to see Otis Khan get off the mark with two really well-taken goals. What's that I hear you say, he scored at Blundell Park back in September? I'm afraid we have no record of that here at CA Towers. What we do have is a match reporter who is sceptical about Khan, citing the number of clubs he has played for as an indication that he has skill but applies it inconsistently. I'm willing to give Otis the benefit of the doubt – maybe Hurst and Doig will bring out the best in him and Blundell Park is the place he will finally fulfil his potential. Even Mr Butcher had to concede he was man of the match on Saturday. Besides, without Otis he'd miss the opportunity of all those lift-based puns.

The internet's a funny place isn't it. Looking around for some news about Town, I spotted an article headlined Grimsby Town's Top 5 Most Valuable Players on a site called Football League World. Well I won't bore you with the list, which was frankly ludicrous, but of course I had to see where Harry Clifton was ranked, only to find that he – and most of the Town squad – were deemed to have no market value at all. What amused me most though was to learn that Harry has "Welsh citizenship". Perhaps that's where whoever called him "the Welshman" in the Cambridge programme got his information from. This must be what teenagers get up to when they're bored of playing FIFA Manager in their bedrooms.

Last Thursday the diary gave an update on the loan status of Town's junior professionals but had no news to report of Aaron Braithwaite or Harvey Tomlinson. I can now confirm that Braithwaite has been loaned to Whitby for a month and Tomlinson has gone to Cleethorpes Town. On Saturday Braithwaite started on the bench and came on as a sub mid-way through the second half, while Tomlinson started his game and played 65 minutes.

All this meandering was to try and stop myself fretting about this evening's FA Cup third round draw. There was no suspense at all last time round – partly because we'd already beaten the best team in the competition at the time, and partly because our tie was the first to be drawn.

Tonight Town are ball number 45 and the stakes are much higher. I have seen people on Twitter say they'd like to get a "small" team at home so we can progress to the fourth round. Some chicken counting going on there. Others want a "big" team away, presumably for the atmosphere and the payday for the club. Some even fancy our chances of beating a big team. Of course it wouldn't be Town if someone hadn't Tweeted something to the effect of "I bet we get a shit draw" as soon as the Cambridge game ended.

But there really is no point in speculating, is there? What will be will be.

UTM