Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 10 February 2009

10 February 2009

"Weather forecast is not good," says the Barnet official site as a headline to its piece about how waterlogged their pitch was last night (before all that overnight rain). A second postponement seems a formality after a pitch inspection sometime later this morning - one would assume before the Town bus leaves at noon. But now the clock has ticked, as bankers make empty, weaselly-worded apologies in the corner of your Guest Diarist's screen, and it is 11:38. And lo and behold, the official site announces by email, in a new, timely and superb way, that the match is ON after a pitch inspection.

Barnet, having had a few home games postponed, have probably wheedled to get this match played. God knows how bad the pitch is, and Heaven knows how they survive on their meagre crowds in the first place. The cash flow implications of having three home games called off must be horrendous for the poor buggers.

On balance this, I think, is a bad decision for Town, who need a fit French striker to scare the pants off the opposition defence. Dean Sinclair, says the Grimsby Telegraph, is only 50-50 after picking up a knock on Saturday. Dean told the journo that Dave Moore had muttered a brief but pithy incantation over the starlet midfielder and that this had enabled him to go for a light jog. Manager Newell has obviously got great faith in this type of treatment because he was almost airy when responding to Dale's question on the slightly furtively published Mariners World interview, about Sinclair, saying that the lad would be fine on the day.

Newell also further embarrassed young Jarman by explaining what fun he had teasing the lad after discovering his weekend injury was actually just a touch of cramp. But to balance things the manager went out of his way to laud Jarman's exemplary hard work both on the training ground and in the gym.

As to the outcome of tonight's game Newell was crystal clear: avoid defeat. With Atkinson available and a choice of full-backs (Newell only mentioned Akpa Akpro as being unfit so both Stockdale and Newey (the unmentionable) by implication are available), it should be entirely possible to prevent Barnet scoring any goals. That would be a good start, eh? And given that we are supposed to beat Barnet every single time we play them, someone must come up with a goal. I hope it is Jarman, whose attitude I also applaud and whose technique I admire.

The CA team thought this match would not happen and so we cheerfully admit that we can't be arsed to do a factfile at this late hour. The bookmakers obviously feel Town's Barnet away streak is at an end, making the home team a best-priced 7/5 favourite with Hills and Town 9/4 (Sky Bet) with a draw best-priced at 12/5 (Ladbrokes). Go for the latter if you fancy a flutter - both sides have too much at stake to lose. There, that should guarantee us an away win. See yer.