Cod Almighty | Article

by Sam Metcalf

15 August 2010

You could probably count on both testicles the amount of players who really cared whether Town were relegated last season. It's my opinion that Lee Peacock was one of them. One of the players, I mean – not one of my testicles.

Now Town's captain – a natural position for the player, I reckon – this forward-cum-midfielder has been bought and sold for well over a million quid in total during his career, and played for Manchester City for a brief period during the 1999-2000 season.

However, when he failed to score in eight games he was offloaded to Bristol City, where he became a firm favourite, scoring 54 goals in 144 appearances – better than one in three, for those even worse at maths than me.

Things I like about Lee Peacock: his name sounds like he should be good. Seriously, I set great store by this. Think about it. Good players: Kevin Drinkell, Clive Mendonca, Paul Groves, Gary Childs. Shit players: Phil Bonnyman, Tony Gallimore, Matt Heywood, Paul Rawcliffe. 

He also looks like a player – like he's hard but skilful, tricky, yet not afraid to stick his foot in where it hurts. He could be the sort of team leader we've not had since Paul Groves finally came to terms with his age and packed up playing.

Scot Peacock is, of course, the first person to score a non-League goal for Town in over 100 years after his winner at Crawley in the opening game of the season. Another 19 of those and Town stand a decent chance of finishing in the top six.

But whatever happens, Peacock should be applauded for staying with Town when he didn't have to. He was one of the players recruited by Woods during the transfer window last season who had a clause in his contract that meant he could leave if we were relegated. Refreshingly, Peacock realised that it was just as much the players' fault we got relegated as it was anyone else's and said he wanted to stay to put it right. Good on him.