The Diary

Cod Almighty | Diary

You could be mined

11 May 2022

Nice one, Town. Last night's victory over Boreham Wood secured a tilt at an immediate return to the league via the play-offs. For your reference, barring some exceptional results this weekend, the next few weeks will pan out like this:

Wed 25 May: Eliminator A – Notts County v Town

Thur 26 May: Eliminator B – Halifax Town v Chesterfield

Sat 28 May: Semi Final – Wrexham/Stockport County v winner of Eliminator A

Sun 29 May: Semi Final – Solihull Moors v winner of Eliminator B

Sun 5 June: Final

Daubney can't help but be excited by the prospect, and we're not just talking about the opportunity for a ton of ZZ Top Eliminator references. Sharp-dressed manager Paul Hurst is pleased too, and so he should be at a step towards righting last season's wrongs. Rumblings that he got a free pass on relegation underestimate just what a mess he'd inherited. The books may have appeared to balance but everything else from the desecrated floodlights down to the tatty Cheapside training balls was a shambles. 

The manager isn't the only one with a right to be quietly pleased. On the DN35 pod a week or so back Debbie, Andrew and Jason were posed the question from Cod Almighty of "how are they measuring their performance as custodians of the club?". It was qualified by the hosts as possibly being tongue-in-cheek because it came from us. Do we really come accross as that sarky? Sorry if so, we're actually quite nice. Anyway, how's this for a performance measure:

That is pretty special and a clear indication that the Town fans are buying into this gig. What's more impressive is it's a gig founded on a long-term plan of gradual but lasting improvements. People hate sensible plans like that. They're usually happier with a snake oil merchant promising the world delivered by gimmicks and quick fixes. Having said that, even long-term plans have space for stunts like signing this dude and, shouted loudly with a complete absence of knowledge of the conference registration rules, preferably before the play-offs. 

Let's wind this up by pointing you towards some other GTFC content to catch up on while you dream of play-off glory. There's Knowing us, knowing Bill Meek, a man skilled in expressing the soul of the GTFC collective. And nailing Leeds, of course. Elsewhere on CA, Tony Butcher's match report from last night should be ready to take out of the oven by the time you read this. If you need more Jason Stockwood after last week's podcast, he's available in sound with Matt Dean and print in the Guardian.

Tip of the hat and thanks to Matt for his Town content while we're here. He's also taken the time to interview Kev Drinkell, Joe Waters and Bobby Cumming. Their piece starts at about ten minutes here. Additional kudos to Matt for being able to form words in the presence of such greatness, I was reduced to a swooning eejit when I met them at the magnificent Mariners Trust event last Friday. 

UTM.