Cod Almighty | Diary

The honeymoon fairies are still with us

16 November 2021

Trentside Diary was a very a fortunate Mariner on Saturday. Long trot down to Aldershot or pop over to Cleethorpes to meet the latest mini-Mariner in our family? It was a no-brainer and baby cuddles followed. Congratulations to Adam and Laura and new big brother Oliver; I know he'll be brought up to follow Town. Like my own children who didn't really have a choice as they were taken to Town games from being small.

I love to see parents with small children at matches. My long-time football mate Mark and I agree that we're pleased we no longer have to break away from watching to take a small child to the toilet. The small mercies of them growing up. But I think some of the blokes in our row of seats like to recreate the moment, needing to dash off themselves during the first half, or maybe that's breakfast onwards in the Fisherman's and weak bladders.

Listening to the first half, Town sounded like they were struggling to contain the opposition and so it proved. Have I changed my mind since last week? No, have I heck. We're still a decent team. We're third with 29 points and even if all their games in hand were won by others, we would still be fifth. Still in the mix but stuttering for form.

There's speculation that gates will soon be down to 3,500. Maybe so and that would be disappointing but many of us are Town through and through and as a few around me joke, at least we'll be able to park.

There were a few comments that the new owner honeymoon is over. I don't get that. I always understood that "honeymoon period" was a time of grace when a new manager or owner would be forgiven anything as they settled into their new role. To talk about the honeymoon being over, you either believe in honeymoon fairies who sprinkle sparkly dust and let you win a few games, or you personally are choosing not to cut them any slack.

If that is you, give yourself a shake. It's less than a year since we nearly had a convicted fraudster involved in our club. We really should have started a list of the improvements already made - from the sprinkler system to the catering, from the values to the fan engagement - because we're already taking these things for granted.

Straight from a sizeable defeat to in-form Wrexham, Aldershot were always likely to up their gam against us. We're not just missing one player: we've had a series of injuries and Covid absences which disrupted the rhythm and confidence we had built up. There's no reason to believe we can’t get it back. There's no reason to believe we can't start scoring again, with or without a new striker.

If you are saying that if we don't win on Friday then Hurst must go, are you expecting new honeymoon fairies? Don't forget the loanees will be here because clubs trust our manager to develop their youngsters and the squad seem to have built up a good team spirit under his management. Yes, we need to get back on track but keep the faith, it will come.

UTM.