Cod Almighty | Diary

Born slippy

3 March 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: Ever since my partner and I sponsored his shirt a few times during his first spell with Town, I have felt a proprietary interest in Steve Croudson's career. I was sad for him when Town let him go during the Groves era after he suffered a serious shoulder injury and even sadder to see him filling in as keeper for the youth team against Horncastle Town. I think that might have been in 2007, just before Buckley brought him back to Town as part-time goalkeeping coach.

To remind myself when all this happened, I looked up his career on Soccerbase and was amazed to see that Steve played more first-team games in 2010 under Neil Woods (eight) than he had in the five years of his first playing spell (six). Somehow his storming debut in the 0-0 draw with Wolves in May 1999 had made me believe his career with Town was much more extensive that it was in reality.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is how lovely it was to see Steve giving the post-match press conference on Saturday. And why was he doing that, I wonder? Could it be because Paul Hurst has become a little snippy of late, complaining before Saturday's game about fans' criticism following the recent lack of victories? Or could it be part of a move by the club to groom Steve to become Hurst's official number two? I would like to think it's the latter.

You'll notice I've said nothing about the actual game at the weekend – that's because I was forced to stay at home through illness. But I have been assured that the five minutes of highlights on Mariners Player are entirely sufficient to show all of Salisbury's chances and most of Town's good moments.

It's fortunate that I don't have to rely on the Salisbury Journal for a match report. According to that paper, "it was déjà vu for the visitors after a shambolic start, similarly to Southport two-weeks ago, fell behind inside two minutes and conceded late on to drive them out of the play-off zone." Is that even English? Later, Salisbury substitutions "left gaping holes in the last 20 minutes" which meant that Rodman "found his clinical knack in front of goal". That sounds a bit painful to me.

I would give you a link to Cod Almighty's wonderfully coherent and comprehensive match report, but it hasn't appeared yet. Apparently, the server ate it, or something. Isn't that a bit like the old 'the dog ate my homework' excuse? [Look, here it is! - breathless ed.]

Finally, here's something we Town fans love to fret about: fixture congestion. Yes, that Dartford game has finally been re-arranged to Thursday, 10 April, meaning Town will have to play three games in six days. Happy fretting!