Cod Almighty | Diary
There was a football match in Cleethorpes on Saturday. Apparently
11 November 2019
Trentside Diary writes: Believe it or not there was a rare event on Cleethorpes on Saturday. Yes, not seen in this area of the country in recent days but there was actually a professional football match taking place on Saturday afternoon.
Nearly three weeks since we’d kicked a ball in anger and that veneer of match sharpness has gone out of the window. It will be more than a week until we play again, December before we're next at home. I don’t like having so few games in such an extended period. This is our enforced autumnal bear, but we don’t look better for it. We’ve struggled for form this season and this stop-start doesn’t help.
Saturday was an uninspiring draw but without the curse of the former player, we might have snuck a win. How different it would have been if the club could have been persuaded to put their short arms in their long pockets and keep Podge at Town. Now we have a dreary mid-week replay to look forward to. For the FA Cup let’s have extra time and penalties. Then at least those going know they will see a result on the day.
Post-match, the "Jolley out" brigade crawled out in force. Don't get me wrong: we'd all like to see the team playing well, with more shape and consistency. But change the manager now, and we'd still be a poorly-funded, fourth division team with a mix of youngsters and journeyman. Our manager is the reason some players have agreed to come here and others might consider it. We’ve got an insular, backward-looking board, without an idea between them, and a non-chairman who says he wants out. Who in their right mind would want to come to Town?
We’ve only played 15 league games so far but we have four more points than we did at this stage last season. If that pattern continues we’d end up with 12 more points than last year. We’d be pushing at the edge of the playoffs. We've had two games postponed recently and how different would it be if we had the six points? It only needs a couple more wins and those shouting for change in the management would be silent.
It could be worse. At least we don’t have to put up with that VAR rubbish on a weekly basis. We’ve only had it work against us so haven’t seen any supposed benefit but it seems that more and more fans are complaining. I never for a minute thought it would enhance the game.
Yes, even the best ref will get a decision wrong sometime but VAR is killing the game. It gives too much power in the hands of a little man in a cupboard hundreds of miles away. How can that be right? The time taken (nearly four minutes) to decide a player is offside, like the Sheffield United player against Spurs on Saturday is slowly turning off more and more of us and if there aren’t drastic changes it will kill the game. If a decision to find someone offside takes minutes and then it’s only by millimetres it’s really not a clear and obvious error. Even that plonker Jamie Carrrraggggher has now rewritten history and claims he was only in favour because he wanted to give it a chance.
Let’s get back to watching football where at least it’s the people who turn up that count. Even if it’s only a few thousand of us huddled against the biting wind off the Humber.
UTM!