Cod Almighty | Diary

Everything is awesome

25 April 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: At this point of the season many an hour is wasted by football fans in staring at the remaining fixtures of their team and its closest rivals – whether that's about getting promoted or avoiding relegation – and trying to predict the results. The conversation will usually start with "Well, on paper…" only for some smart Alec to remind them that football is played on grass not on "on paper". That was certainly true on Saturday.

The top three clubs, Stockport, Wrexham and Halifax were all beaten by mid-table teams with "nothing to play for" (As an aside, I hate that expression. A team should always have something to play for, at the very least for the fans and for their own pride.), Chesterfield appeared to struggle to beat bottom club Dover and Dagenham could only manage a draw at home to King's Lynn. Only the victories of Solihull and Notts County followed the form book.

As for Town, with exactly the same form going into the game – four wins and a draw from the last five games - as Torquay, "on paper" a draw might have been the expected result. We all know that didn't happen and we kept our sixth place while dashing Torquay's hopes of a play-off spot. Though, according to the commentator on BT Sport, Town stole those three points. Grrrrr.

When Town moved back into the play-off spots after beating Dagenham at the end of last month, I was still seeing the prospect of finishing sixth or seventh as the best we could do. Also as a bit of a poison chalice: two difficult away games before any chance of a place in the final. Now the prospect of finishing at least fifth looms large. Then Chesterfield were riding high in third with an eight point lead on us, now they are one point and one place above us – and of course we have the experience of the 4-1 victory at their ground. So, with three of our last four games against teams in the lower half of the table, Town should be a shoo-in to displace Chesterfield and maybe even catch Solihull - on paper.

A key factor in that will probably be the McAtee shoulder, now revealed to be in need of an operation. Town's performance on Saturday undoubtedly suffered without him. The tactics and formation which Hurst had the players adopt to cover McAtee's absence has been explained to me by a man who knows (aka Tony Butcher) but it's far too complicated to attempt elucidation here. Suffice to say it seemed to work better in the second half and, who knows, may work even better in the next game. Let's hope so, as only Crocombe's heroics kept the score down to 1-1 at half time.

Paul Hurst has said the timing of McAtee's operation, and thus whether he will feature again this season, will depend on how much pain he is in. I feel sure he is the sort of player who will want to put his own needs to one side to help the team, especially with the bond this set of players appear to have. But as someone who regularly suffers from joint pain, I recognise this may simply be impossible and would not think less of McAtee for putting his own wellbeing first.

Alas, I will not be at Barnet next week, having tickets for a twice-Covid-postponed event in Sheffield that evening, but whispers on Twitter suggest an inflatable invasion may be in the offing. If it's even half as good as the one in 2015 it will be awesome. UTM!