Cod Almighty | Diary
Some day this season's gonna end
24 May 2021
Miss Guest Diary writes: Is it just me or does anyone else feel that this football season seems never ending? Yesterday saw it grind a little closer to a conclusion with the last round of Premier League games. Match of the Day did that thing where they cut between several games to maintain the suspense of who would claim the final Champions League places. Seriously? Anyone who genuinely cared would have been keeping up with the scores as they happened. For the rest of us it was just an irritating conceit and after five minutes I did the sensible thing – looked up the results on the internet and went to bed.
Down at Town's new level Sutton United were automatically promoted into the League for the first time in their history. Congratulations to them. Now we just have to wait for the Conference play-offs to be completed to know the full roster of our opponents for next season. With the - frankly too complicated to explain on a Monday morning - play-off system introduced since we were last in non-League the teams finishing from second to seventh can make that spot. Looking at the current table, anyone down to Halifax in tenth place still has a shot. I am hoping – sorry Devon Dairy – for Torquay to succeed, but sod's law it will be Notts County.
In the fourth tier play-off Morecambe will be meeting Newport at Wembley. We all know that, apart from your own team, watching football is less about who you'd like to win and much more about who you want to lose. I don't have a rational reason, but everything about Forest Green simply irritates me, so I was pleased when they lost to Newport. My hearty dislike of the latter, created when they didn't even wait till we had left the ground after losing to them in the play-off semi-final in 2013 to start touting Wembley shirts, faded when they signed Podge. I will still be hoping Morecambe beat them, though, for the very uncharitable reason that it will amuse me to think how furious BOTB Diary will be that yet another "tinpot" team is two divisions above Town.
Weirdly, I received an email from Morecambe alerting me to the priority booking window allowing me to purchase a ticket for the game at Wembley. Have they so few fans that they need to poach them from other clubs, I thought. Then I remembered that when we played them back in December it was during the 'not a penny more until Fenty leaves' protest so I had bought my streaming pass through the Morecambe website. Even more weirdly, I was a little bit tempted to actually buy a ticket for the play-off final just to see some live football.
Town news is thin on the ground. I'll paraphrase the latest set of articles in the Grimsby Telegraph so you don't have to venture into pop-up add hell. In no particular order: Paul Hurst works very hard; the squad will be smaller next season; views from the fans survey will be looked at; there will be a 20 per cent discount on a new season ticket for existing holders, a discount for front-line workers and better options for shift workers.
From the Mariners Trust newsletter I can add: season tickets will go on sale on 14 June; there will be a beer festival on 18 July as a test event for the new fan zone; and the annual family open day will be on 8 August.
Last, but by no means least, comes the news that Town are a founder member of Fair Game, which is a group of like-minded clubs striving to make positive change for wider interests of football. We will have to wait and see quite what that might mean or what they might be able to achieve, but their aspirations are to be applauded.
And to keep you in the loop on my cricket watching – I spent the day at Trent Bridge yesterday and saw Nottinghamshire win their third county championship game in a row after a three-year winless run. I'm telling you, it's an omen for next season!
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