Cod Almighty | Diary

Life's a rollercoaster

20 June 2025

Miss Guest Diary writes: I'm afraid there'll be no heartfelt eulogies to films or footballers of the past today, due to the late withdrawal of your regular Friday diarist. When A46 Diary messaged CA Towers to say he was on a coach to Alton Towers and unavailable for diary duty my first thought was that he might, ironically, be messaging from the A46. My second thought was who goes to Alton Towers on a day when 30 degree temperatures are forecast; or at any time really? I admit that a few years ago I was in the area and tried to gain access to the house and gardens without having to pay to enter the theme park, but no luck. Theme parks are actually something I would rather pay to avoid than experience.

At least there's some transfer news to fill the void. Town's second signing of the summer – left-back Reece Staunton. I dare say everyone will know by now that he started in Bradford's academy, played a few senior games for them, got a serious injury which sidelined him for months then was loaned out to Bradford Park Avenue, signing for them in 2022. The following season he moved to Spennymoor Town from where we signed him. Those pessimistic keyboard warriors who start moaning about signing 'crocks' should note that Reece has played 119 games over the last three seasons. Not quite up to the Paul Groves standard of never missing a game, but pretty close. And rumour has it that he is a full-back who can actually defend as well as attack.

The other rumour – that Reece is the son of ex-Liverpool and Aston Villa defender Steve Staunton – has been pooh-poohed. This is welcome news to one resident of CA Towers who, in doing his real life job thing, had a hand in taking proceedings to disqualify a Mrs Staunton from acting as a company director. It would be a bit embarrassing if that had been our new left-back's mum.

It's true that both Town's signings so far have come from non-league clubs but I despair when I read comments like the one suggesting Town are buying burgers at "MacciDs" while everyone else is going to "Five Guys" (whatever that is). My advice is to steer clear of burgers altogether – too much red meat, fat and salt will just clog up your arteries anyway – and wait to see how the players perform before passing judgement. Football fans being what they are, there were undoubtedly some making similar comments when Leicester signed Jamie Vardy from Fleetwood, and look how that turned out.

I was a bit miffed to see that the Premier League fixtures have already been released. Their season starts two weeks after ours but their fans got the details a week earlier. Typical! Not fair! Then I noticed the rider that "all fixtures are subject to change". This will be mostly to accommodate the TV broadcasters but also because so many teams are playing in European competitions next season. Then I read that although there are no top flight games currently scheduled for Boxing Day, some could be moved to 26 December for "live broadcast". Good luck to Premier League fans planning their Christmas, or indeed anything else. Sometimes being down at the bottom of the football league feels like a bonus.