Cod Almighty | Diary

Don’t believe me, just watch

18 September 2025

I mean, if I won ten grand on the postcode lottery I would be over the moon. But if I ran a loss-making fourth division football club who had just giant-killed their way to the fourth round of the league cup the £10k prize money must feel a bit of a rounding error. Into the fourth round and the total prize money so far adds up to £22,000. Your Guest Diarist has to admit that I have no idea what a Carabao is. It sounds like maybe a southern african type of nut. But whoever it is that picks, makes or sells Carabaos, they are a bit of a cheapskate don’t you think?

Here I am after an interrupted night. I live in a very old house on a street corner. Carved in to the stone frontage is an arrow and the initials FP. A bit like the arrows on Journey to the Centre of the Earth that said AS. It stands for fire point I think but at 2-45am I was awakened as 7 (seven) fire engines rocked up nearby and the fire people were looking for water. They said there was ‘an incident’ across the road. If you are interested there is also an old benchmark symbol next to the fire one. After trawling through old maps and that I found that I live 66 feet above sea level. Bench marks are like the runes of ancient history, overtaken by erm, lasers and GPS and all sorts. So a bit like me then.

I had the radio on the other afternoon and that woman who covers all the wars and disasters was on. No, not Orla Guerin - the other one Lyse Doucet. They asked her how she managed to exhibit tiny signs of cheerfulness even in the darkest times. She went on to talk about differentiating optimism and hope. This is quite fascinating if you think about it. In football terms. So often us fans confuse the former with the latter don’t we? We feel optimistic that our teams xg is one of the highest in the division. We must be playing well! But we just have to hope that we get better at finishing. The manager is encouraged that his teams are winning so many penalties - the team must be exerting intense pressure in the opponents area. The fans just hope that we start converting a lot more of them. Our July signings make me very optimistic of promotion. What I mean is I am hoping again. Think about it, this way madness lies.

I went to Hillsborough the last time Town won there. I looked it up because the memory was a bit faint. It was in 1981, the Kerr years. I don’t remember the game itself, just the great feeling of winning somewhere we didn’t usually. To be frank younger readers will barely remember the game this week in 2069 will they? It was an efficient win, a great result but almost entirely bereft of drama, peril or excitement. Even now I can only remember four things. The goal obviously. The penalty claim (I thought the foul started just outside). Warren’s great tackle (he was great all game). And the backheels. The backheeling had me drifting off into another set of memories. Long may they continue. See yer.