Cod Almighty | Diary

At Blundell Park since I was young-ish

1 September 2025

Miss Guest Diary writes: There's been much talk in the last few days about the financial David vs Goliath aspect of Town's victory over Manchester United but, pondering the three Town games in the last ten days, it seems to me that there is another, more insidious, inequality which has had an adverse impact. How is it that – leaving aside the first 45 minutes of Saturday's game when the players looked a bit sluggish and disjointed – while playing the same style of football Town have managed to draw and then lose to teams in the same division but more than hold their own against a Premier League team?

I believe it's the officiating. Last Wednesday the game was refereed by Tony Harrington, a Premier League referee, and I cannot recall disagreeing with any of his decisions. In fact, I can't bring to mind any decisions at all, which is the sign of a good official just getting on with the job.

Contrast that with the Accrington game where Ross Martin, who seems to have done most of his refereeing in non-League, had a definite assist in Accrington's equaliser when he threw a drop ball at the feet of their player, who crossed it directly into the box before the Town players knew what was happening. Martin was also overly lenient with their fouling and bullying, which stymied a number of Town attacks.

Then to Saturday's game with Neil Hair as referee – a very apt name as he seemed preoccupied with his own locks, smoothing them down at regular intervals. He has more league experience, but was no better at his job. He seemed utterly determined not to notice when Kabia was clattered, gave a goal kick instead of a Town corner on more than one occasion and his positional sense was terrible. I swear at one point he actually tackled George MacEachran. And then there was the handball in our penalty area.

I'm not claiming Town would have definitely won either of those games but the eventual results would have been easier to take if it felt like Town had been given an even chance.

I think we all expected that Saturday would be an "after the Lord Mayor's show" occasion and it certainly felt like that in the first half. But in the second half Town really got stuck in and there was plenty of goalmouth action. I was sitting in the Pontoon with a friend from 'down south' who has no experience of lower division football. Her husband is an Arsenal season ticket holder and she makes occasional visits to the Emirates, where they sit miles from the pitch on the halfway line. It was interesting to listen to her concerns for the players' safety and see her wincing as she witnessed from close up all the scrambles and challenges – something I simply take for granted.

My friend was impressed with the singing and the different songs we have – her overwhelming impression of the Arsenal crowds is that they spend most of their time singing about how much they hate Spurs. When I think of it I can't really bring to mind any 'anti' songs in our repertoire. Yes, we josh the Yorkies about their slums and accuse anyone from the south west of shagging the local sheep, but there's no real venom involved. I feel quite proud of that.

I can't go without giving a huge shout out to Scott Woodthorpe's brilliant mickey take when announcing the team line up on Saturday. It has certainly drawn a lot of attention, 148 thousand likes and 24 thousand re-Tweets at the last count, and even featured on Sky Sports News. Don't bother to read the comments though, they just confirm that too many football fans don't have a sense of humour.

The Great Game has also inspired CA's creatives to be creative - not one but TWO musical memorials already! Firstly there's Phil Ball's Europoptastic paean of praise My Pink Is Tickled based on Friday's A46 diary, and now also Molton Plastic Pete Green's long overdue follow up to The Ballad of Phil Jevons.

Close your eyes and drift away, no-one can stop us from feeling this way.

UTM