Cod Almighty | Diary

I heard a rumour, let's have more, more, more decent performances

22 March 2022

There was much excitement on social media yesterday. Well, when I say excitement I mean a few Town fans getting a bit enthusiastic at the suggestion that Hartlepool midfielder Gavan Holohan will be moving to Town. At the time of writing there are suggestions it's a done deal. The curse of diarist: as soon as I submit this, he will be announced, I just know it. Where he is actually going we will find out, but as he's apparently still based in Hull, Town would seem a good fit for him. Fingers crossed! He would be a decent signing and certainly go some way to alleviating our midfield injuries issue.

We seem beset with injuries at the moment and have no fully fit back-up for the keeper. Whilst it's always entertaining to see an outfield player pull on the keeper's gloves, we're in the most crucial point of the season and could do without shipping goals or the stress of it. Maybe we will have to call on our celebrity keeper, Lloyd Griffith to step into the breach. I'm sure he'd be willing.

In case you missed it, last Friday saw "An Evening with Ivano Bonetti". I was disappointed not to be there but, as an exile, there are only so many times I make it over to Grimsby and match days take priority. My sons were both there though. One because Ivano was the glamorous signing that captured our imaginations and has been a favourite ever since; the other because he was too young for Ivano but he'd heard so much about him from his big brother.

Some think Bonetti can't be a Town legend because he wasn't with us for long enough. I beg to differ. I cannot think of any player before or since who was taken to Town hearts so quickly in quite the same way. He brought glamour and enthusiasm. He won Serie A titles and played in the European Cup Final and now he was stepping out at Blundell Park. The atmosphere was electric. You only have to look at some of the photos posted by people with him on Friday. They were meeting a legend.

The Bananarama slipped into full tin pot league mode by including Shaun Pearson in its "Team of the Week" announced yesterday. Lovely for Shaun but he was an unused substitute on Saturday. I could only think that he had been particularly impressive on the side-lines. Was it his smooth running and stretches to keep warmed up? Was it the nonchalant reclining in his leisure wear in the stands? Whatever it was, he was obviously very good at it. When it was pointed out that Shaun hadn't played, the team was quickly changed.

It does make you question the veracity of the decisions on who to include. Such a shame. I'll still say "Congratulations" to Andy Smith, Town's representative in the revised team of the week. We have had so many of these, let's just convert this positivity into a play-off place please, starting with play-off rivals Solihull Moors tonight. A real six-pointer as they say. UTM!