Cod Almighty | Diary
We coulda been contenders
25 October 2021
Miss Guest Diary writes: Still top of the league with six home wins out of six; still not being taken seriously by the BT Sport pundits. Watching the TV coverage of Maidenhead v Woking on Saturday, the commentator remarked that Woking had lost to Grimsby a couple of weeks ago and followed it up by saying that they had previously beaten "genuine" promotion contenders Chesterfield, Notts County and Dagenham & Redbridge. Grrrr.
I know it's only October and a lot can happen between now and May, but really? I bet they consider Stockport and Wrexham, who are currently sitting at 10th and 11th in the table, to be genuine promotion contenders. If we are still top at Christmas, will the pundits then start to take Town seriously?
It felt a bit weird typing the words "still top at Christmas". Some might suggest I am counting a few chickens there, but with our current squad and the way Paul Hurst has them playing it doesn't feel impossible.
At the weekend my brother, who knows nothing about sport, asked me if it was possible Town could just keep on winning, which got me thinking. I was able to tell him that in recent years Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have all gone on very long unbeaten runs, but that I had never heard of anyone keeping it up in the lower tiers of football. Maybe some statto can help me out.
One sports outlet which is taking Town seriously is the Non-League Paper. Town have claimed the cover again this week and Ben Fox is in the team of the day. In fact, most weeks we have a player, sometimes two, in their team of the day.
A player who hasn't yet featured, but who deserves to, is Adam Crookes. He has played every minute of every league game and made valuable contributions to the seven clean sheets achieved so far. He's not "one of our own", coming through the Nottingham Forest Academy, but he's one of Lincolnshire's own. Have a watch of Saturday's interview with John Tondeur in which Adam comes across as a nice young chap and a great team player.
Now it's on to tomorrow's trip to Wealdstone, who are sitting 17th in the table and who haven't won in the last month. Exactly the sort of game Town have lost in previous seasons. Optimism isn't boosted by the news that Ryan Taylor is still unavailable, which presumably means John-Lewis up front again. I'm not criticising Lenny here – heaven forbid the "debate" about him rears its head again – but with only two starts this season he is unlikely to be properly match fit and may be tired after Saturday.
But the professionalism and commitment shown in last week's FA Cup qualifier against lower league opposition tells me that Town are much less likely to mess things up through complacency than in the past. Of course, if there's an apocalyptic rainstorm à la Bromley, anything could happen. Those of you who are venturing south might want to check out our rough guide.
See you in Ruislip!