Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Thursday 20 May 2004
20 May 2004
Imagine you are doing the ironing and fall into a reverie about Nigel Clough leading the Mariners to triumph in the 2009-10 Champions League final. Imagine the iron scorches your new Nike/Youngs shirt, which then ignites, and before you know it your house is burning down. The firefighters are on strike (as they have every right to be if their bosses have reneged on a pay agreement), so who you gonna call? Well, the Diary suggests Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson, because if his reaction to all this 'Clough for Grimsby' speculation is anything to go by then he's pretty good at pouring cold water over things. "I don't know how ambitious he is," says Robinson of Clough, "but with him currently raising a young family and us being a part-time club, a full-time managerial job might not be what Nigel wants at this stage in his career." And even if he does want a full-time managerial job, would he really want one where teenage reserve centre-backs go around putting off potential new players by describing the club as a "shithole"?
Anyway, Keith Alexander is sure to be beating down Peter Furneaux's door now that his Lincoln side are out of the third division play-offs. O yes. The Imps looked like overturning a 2-1 first-leg deficit at Huddersfield last night with two first-half goals within the space of a minute (one scored by former Town trialist Kevin Ellison); but a gritty comeback from the Yorkshire side - for whom Iffy Onuora again produced some good work - levelled the scores at two-all on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. The result ensures parochial face-pulling and potato-throwing aplenty in the basement next season, with all four of Lincolnshire's professional clubs now set to kick off in Division Three.
Clough... Alexander... McMenemy... Neil Armstrong... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart... these are all names. Possibly all names that featured in the Grimsby Telegraph poll for who should be the new GTFC manager. But probably not all names that feature on the shortlist for the job that the board drew up yesterday. "The board identified some people we would like to talk to," Mr Peter tells the Grimbo Telbo. "We must have someone who is fully committed to Grimsby." And if that means someone who doesn't live in Chesterfield, then it's got to be a start.
Veteran Town defender and hero of the First World War Mr John McDermott, you may recall, turned down moves to Bradford, Sunderland and Ipswich to stay with the Mariners, but will he be able to resist the call of the undefeated Premiership champions? GTFC's latest QXL auction is trying to scrape a few bob together by flogging the new shirts worn by the bunch of apathetic losers who just got the club relegated to the third division, but rather than appearing on the same Grimsby page as those of his teammates, Macca's shirt is listed on a page headed "QXL > Football > English Premiership Clubs : Arsenal". The Gunners may well have struggled to replace Lee Dixon, and Arsene Wenger is believed to see Lauren as the weak link in his 'Untouchables', but wouldn't Jason Crowe fancy a return to his old club instead?
Email from former Graham Hockless lookalike Mat Hare, who needs to grow a mullet to keep pace. "I'm sorry Diary but I have to pick you up on a deviation from your normal high standards of both reporting and use of the English language," writes Mat. Oh aye? "You wrote about the release of Simon Ford stating his time with Town had 'included 80-odd appearances'. I believe the use of that hyphen to be incorrect as I am of the opinion that every one of Ford's appearances included at least one moment of oddity." Space oddity, even, eh? Heh heh!