Cod Almighty | Diary

What is "IZ *falafel & tate" please

13 August 2019

Of English football's two main cup competitions it's the younger and supposedly lesser League Cup which has provided far the greater share of thrills in your original/regular Diary's matchgoing lifetime. Town's 1989 run to the fifth round of the FA Cup may be the most often discussed, and is clearly significant as a turning point in the wider fortunes of the club. But those games in the early rounds of the League Cup, when Town overcame Spurs, Leicester, Liverpool, Aston Villa and several others, have put the biggest stupid grin on my chops the following day.

Since the Mariners resumed League Cup business in 2016, though, the results have been rubbish. True, we gave Derby a good game at their place that year, but never threatened against the same opposition a season later, and the less said about last season's limp lying down at home to Rochdale, the better. How sweet it would be, then, to get past third division Doncaster tonight.

You know the team news: weekend injury victims Ahkeem and Ludvig are out and will likely be replaced by their substitutes against Bradford, Moses and Mattie. I'm using everyone's first name today for no particular reason. Michael has usefully pointed out that the league is the priority but the cup is very important but the league is the priority, so maybe that means he'll give James a rest as well – I dunno, what do you reckon?

If you're going to the game, look out for the food bank collection on the corner of the Grimsby Road as you walk down to the Pontoon, and stick something in if you can. If you're not going, you can donate cash online. Shout-out to sometime CA contributor Baz Whittleton for his role in this. Tonight is also Town's first proper game under the new floodlights, so look out, too, for lots of photos of BP on social media with a ridiculously over-the-top filter applied and a sky that looks absolutely nothing like the actual sky really looks.

There seems little else to report just now, but let's take a moment to record a couple of details that seem to have slipped under the wonky radar of Town's newly superb new official website. Unless we missed it, while the club recently announced the loan of Brandon Buckley and Jock Curran to Cleethorpes Town and Lincoln United, there was no mention of Ollie Battersby also joining the latter, so well done to James Howes on Twitter for spotting that.

And last of all, in other younglings news, Town's all-conquering under-18s went one better than their elders at the weekend by winning 2-1 away at Bradford. Well done and a bag of chips to Cameron Painter and Lennon Stead for scoring the goals. Nice one.