Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 10 October 2008

10 October 2008

So, appointing Mike Newell has been one hell of a good thing. When your Guest Diarist rang the ticket office today the lovely lady said that sales for tomorrow's match were "excellent" with 700 extra tickets having been shifted. The superb new official site confirms her story, claiming that the expected gate will crack 5,000. Just shows what a tenner a ticket and a popular new signing can do.

Not only that: Town are getting a bit of national press coverage. Today's Guardian has a nice piece where Mr Newell strikes a realistic but positive tone about his and Town's lot at the minute: "I'm not the type of manager who paints a bleak picture when they take over at a club, so that any success makes them look like a miracle worker. There is plenty to work with here, and if you start scoring goals and winning games it's surprising how quickly people forget you have a weakness here or there. Having the league leaders first up is ideal because there is no pressure on us. I've told the players to go out and play with the enthusiasm and desire they've shown me in training, and there's no telling what they're capable of."

In the interview Newell makes it perfectly plain that Mr Fenty's unexpected phone call was perfect in both timing and content. Newell had recovered his appetite for the job but had not considered the likes of Grimsby. However it all turns out, our Chairman can never be blamed for this appointment, and as Newell said: "Now I feel totally fresh. I don't have any ego issues about taking on a club at the bottom of League Two, because this a club with history and far more potential than a lot of clubs, so I was as pleased to hear from them as I could have been. It was what I needed to reignite my enthusiasm."

Town even merited a package on Look North last night. Whether the BBC deliberately sent a 'slip of a girl' to do the piece and goad Newell into an unsuitable outburst we will never know, but the words back from the training pitch were of sunshine, good spirits and a quiet authoritarian.

The Football League has started a new feature on its website imaginatively called 'Ones to Watch'. And the first guy they have chosen is none other than our 'Raz' Bennett, who reveals himself as a young Ford driver who would cheerfully abandon all his possessions in a house fire. What a shame they don't roll out a credible pundit to write an additional paragraph about these kids in terms of their performance and ability rather than concentrating on their taste in music.

One of the many interesting items brought to you today by Cod Almighty's returning pre-match factfile is the news that tomorrow's team won't include Danny Boshell, who has 'tweaked his hamstring' in training. Mr Newell has told both the Telegraph and the still free Mariners World that Boshell will probably be out for about ten days but that Kamara(s) is back in contention.

The new boss mused that he prefers playing 4-4-2, is very happy with the content of his squad and that he might change a few players for his first starting XI. Mr Newell, it would seem, has never been known to smile and has slightly scary eyes which swivel through at least sixty degrees on receipt of each question posed. A serious leader for serious times. See yer.