Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 26 July 2012

26 July 2012

Miss Guest Diary writes: Right after Town's win against Scunthorpe on Tuesday I saw a tweet about hope and despair - you know, that one about being able to stand despair but it's the hope that kills. Well, I know where that's coming from.

In the last ten days I have seen Town play three times. For all but 45 minutes of those games they played a 4-4-2 formation, in which they conceded no goals and coped well with Championship and League One opposition. Players from last season such as Shaun Pearson and Louis Soares seem to have improved and the new players, especially Cook and Thomas, are looking good. We also have a new keeper in Greg Fleming who looks as good as, dare I say maybe even better than, McKeown. And now Shouty has told the Telegraph to expect "another couple" of new players.

So I'm starting to hope that maybe this season Town can hit the ground running, can play consistently well, can... but no, I'm not going there. That ways lies certain despair. Instead, I'm going to try simply to enjoy each game as it happens, starting with next Tuesday's Lincolnshire Senior Cup final against Lincoln. If it's anything like last season's clash, it will be well worth seeing.

Checking in on the Mariners Trust website for news of their doings, I was temporarily distracted by the picture of and quote from my all-time favourite Town player, Wonderful Wayne©. But I was eventually able to tear my eyes away long enough to learn that the refurbishment of the bars at Blundell Park, which will be managed by the trust this season, is progressing and will be followed by improvements in the Pontoon. May I put in a request for hot water in the ladies' toilets, please?

In all the excitement about the NSNOS and the disgust at the club's handling of the racism issue, neither Mardy nor Deviant took up my offer to let one of them put their unique stamp on the reports of a possible new stadium. So I thought I'd revisit the original announcement from the council to see what it was all about. My heart sank when I read the words "community football stadium". I don't want to watch my team play somewhere that doubles as a venue for conferences, rock concerts or, heaven forbid, roller boogie. And I don't buy all this high-faluting talk from John Fenty about "serving future generations" and "raising self-esteem in young people". When a football club moves from a town centre site, the land is generally sold at a nice profit for housing development - look at Doncaster, Shrewsbury, Leicester, etc. And if the club can then get the council to give it the land for a new stadium, I think the shareholders would call that a win-win situation. Some locals have already launched a petition against the development. Good luck to them.

Turning to happier prospects: the next football match I attend won't be to see Town, because on Sunday I'm going to the Olympics! I'm as fed up as a person can be with all the media hype and nonsense about "2012" and I deliberately avoided the torch relay when it came through Lincoln, but I'm starting to feel a little excited now. As is typical of us, my partner and I went for the most low-key venue - Coventry - where we hoped to avoid any big-name participants. And the draw didn't disappoint. So on Sunday we will be seeing Mexico v Gabon and Swtizerland v South Korea. Or is it the other way round? I don't know and, to be honest, I don't care. It will be great to watch some football where neither hope nor despair will play any part.