Cod Almighty | Diary
We want goals. Against Mexico they got one, a beauty scored by Bobby Charlton
13 October 2017
Wicklow Diary writes: Middle Aged Diary's list of favourite recent goals led to a distracted afternoon at work. Was that looping Podge header at Welling or Woking? Who did Diz score that van Persie against? Judging by the level of feedback, I wasn't the only one. Feedback flooded in; emails, tweets, texts, even the notification light on the pigeon lofts at the back of the Main Stand was blinking. Probably.
The CA Twitter account was twittering all afternoon and even had input from Wayne Burnett and Kev Donovan. The criteria may have stipulated post-2006 but linking to the Top 50 opened the floodgates. Thank you for the contributions, they triggered some great memories. Give us a few days to get organised and assemble them into an article/postbag/GTFC World Cup of Ace Goals thingy.
There's also the debate that started on defining ace-ness. Variables of flair, build-up, importance, player likeability index and place in Town folklore all seem relevant. Arranging them in a formula is another matter. We might be overthinking it but we need to explain how I can remember Chima's goal at Tranmere in a 4-1 defeat 23 years ago better than some of our goals this season.
Incidentally, as we sorted and indexed joyful memories of crackers, stonkers and woofers, the Fishy yesterday happened to have a thread listing the worst misses. The yin and yang of football. Crawley boss Harry Kewell will get a taste of the cosmic balance tomorrow as the latest European Cup winner to brave the dressing rooms at Blundell Park. OK, the dressing rooms have their charm but the bogs and showers lost theirs in 1980.
At a poorly researched guess I'd say Edgar Davids was the most recent European Cup winner to visit Blundell Park. His memories of Cleethorpes are probably of the brick chucked through the Barnet team bus window after the game in 2013. Let's hope everyone can contain their excitement tomorrow.
We've no further news on the trialists that featured for the reserves earlier this week so Russ will have to soldier on with his bare bones squad of thirty. The gaffer did reveal that Town will activate a one-year option on Siriki Dembele's contract. With Town's record on player contracts, we'll definitely contain our excitement until the 'will activate' becomes a 'have activated'.
As for team news, we've no new injuries to concern us. Scotty Vernon was poorly during the week but is back in the groove and ready to divide fans tomorrow.
Last season Crawley earned our respect and gratitude for honouring Paul Futcher prior to the game. It was genuinely touching and something I can't recall seeing for a visiting team before. Like us, they have had a mixed start but did win their last two away league games.
Off the field, they announced last week that they are to invite a supporter's representative from Crawley Town Supporters' Alliance to join the club board on an initial two season trial. In return, the supporters trust will make a financial donation of £4,000 each season. Bargain. Our trust pays £30,000 a year and occasionally runs the club marketing department for the same privilege.