Cod Almighty | Diary
Sleep now in the fire
23 March 2022
Who'd be a football manager, eh? It's not an important job in the grand scheme of things. How ever often you see our famous ex-managers quoted on Facebook or by the guy with the hammerhead on Sky, it's not a matter of life or death. That said, when it comes to the challenge of pleasing your audience, it's right up there with head of customer complaints at Ryanair.
Ironically, whilst managing a football team is a difficult job, second guessing that job is one of the nation's easiest and most popular pastimes. We've all done it. Tactics didn't work against a particular opponent? Why didn't Hursty switch it round, ffs. Change tactics for a particular opponent and lose? Tinkerman! He worries too much about the opposition, we should play our way and let them worry about us.
Last night's kick in the teeth is a case in point. A fine second-half perfomance deserving perhaps of three points came undone when a decent Solihull Moors side fought back with two late goals. No, forget them. We lost, what had Hurst done wrong now? It must be something, football games don't just play out with one of three outcomes at the end. Our manager has control over our team and thus can control the outcome. His control is always greater than that of the opposition manager. The only way we can lose is if our manager does something wrong.
A quick scan of the social media airwaves after a defeat always finds a thousand monkeys typing furiously for a thousand seconds. Statistically, one of them is certain to type the recipe for a decent beef stew and at least one other will pinpoint the exact reason for the defeat. The difficulty is in finding these treasures.
Last night blame landed on Hurst's tactics and his reluctance to use substitutions. Eh? Second one first. There are times when Daubney would like to see Hurst make more use of his subs. Last night was not one of those games. In fact, they scored shortly after we made our first tactical change of Sousa for Maguire-Drew. The tactics must have been ok as well, as, with slightly better second half finishing or luck, the game would have been won by then. Maybe the irony of their sub coming on and winning the game was too much and muddled brains. Daubney's contribution is to reccommend the liberal use of Worcester sauce in your stew (and everything else for that matter) and a suggestion the team isn't that far off but needs a bit more mettle.
The result leaves us outside the playoff places and engaging in that other popular pastime as a Town fan - straw clutching. I'm gunning for us to spawn our way into the playoffs for a pressure-free shot at promotion. Looking at the returning JMD and new signing Gavan Holohan in last night's line-up, there are promising signs for this season and beyond. Just imagine the laughs if we finish 20 points behind Chesterfield or Wrexham and stuff them at Wembley.
In a round-up of other news, Jaz Goundry is headed back over the bridge to Bridington and the Mariners Trust have arranged a rather excellent first aid/defib training course. Get yourself along if you can, something we should all know.
We'll end by looking backwards. We've been milking this twentieth birthday thing, but today is the official anniversary of our first diary. While we are typing up last night's match report, why don't you go lose yourself in the magic of the account of that 6-2 win referenced in the diary.