Cod Almighty | Diary

Careful with that spliff, Eugene - it causes condensation

18 October 2016

Wicklow Diary writes: Town have drawn Bolton Wanderers away in the first round of the FA Cup. If we were playing pontoon, it probably rates as a solid deal of 18. My own preference is always to get cannon fodder at home until the third round. Then some more until the final.

Bolton away is a good day out, but obviously a tough tie. They are chasing Plucky Scunny at the top of Division Three and they've had the kibosh on us in previous meetings dating back to the eighties.

You can blame my son Jamie if you don't like the draw. "I hope we don't get them" were the famous last words uttered when the TV graphic showed the Trotters' four cups place them top of the list of previous winners in the draw. My reassurance that the captain of their last cup triumph, Nat Lofthouse, had not only retired but sadly passed away five years ago didn't seem to help.

That was an interesting graphic. Bury have won the cup. Twice! 1900 and 1903. I'd forgotten that the crafty so-and-sos sneaked a couple under their belts before everyone got all good. I once had a photo of Bestall, Glover and Craven on the pitch before the 1936 cup semi with eventual winners Arsenal. As a youngster, I used to annoy myself by considering the regular silverware that Arsenal collected. Why couldn't we have won the cup that year? I wanted to talk to the legends staring back in the photo. This is it, lads. We go close again in '39 but have goalkeeper issues. You need to do it this year – this is it for Town and major silverware.

Back to that graphic. It credited AFC Wimbledon with the win in 1988, 14 years before they were formed. Of course, they were the moral victors in 1988. However, you don't expect to see morals on a TV football show with the host surrounded by leeching logos of middle eastern and American brands. Not to mention anything happening under the watch of the FA, who famously deemed the very formation of AFC Wimbledon to be "not in the wider interests of football".

The presenter mentioned it again when the Wombles were drawn at Bury and referred to it as a match-up of previous winners. I don't know what to make of this, other than that Milton Keynes must be the ultimate modern football abomination when even modern football abandons them.

It used to cause questions from my lads at away games – why are there police everywhere? They seem used to it by now. We're all used to it to an extent. We expect and accept kick-off changes even if they make little sense

Yesterday Miss Guest Diary mentioned Town's great support at Cambridge and the idea "that we really are the 12th man, that we can influence what happens on the field is very seductive". It sure is – and it's worth mentioning again today, if only to bring in Josh Gowling's comments to John Tondeur after the game.

Stand-in skipper Josh brought a few groans from the fans around us when he turned the teams around after winning the toss. But he had that 12th man in mind. Josh explained that in the second half if the players were struggling then we could give them a lift: "I wanted our fans behind us." That blows my mind a little and has me making plans for the next away game.

The only peeve about the atmosphere on Saturday was that the louder and happier we got, the more stewards and police started to appear. Granted, some of them seemed to want to join in with the singing. Perhaps they too were confused by the Tom Bolarinwa song and needed a closer listen – 'Twist and Shout' or 'La Bamba'? And to get the lyrics right – a bucket of Disley? What's that? Oh, Bogle and Disley. That makes much more sense.

It used to cause questions from my lads at away games – why are there police everywhere? They seem used to it by now. We're all used to it to an extent. We expect and accept the kick-off changes at Mansfield and Doncaster even if they make little sense. It's that feeling that if football fans were treated with a little bit more respect by the authorities, behaviour may improve too.

The attitude is evident in FA chairman Greg Clarke's comments yesterday at the government's governance of football inquiry. They seem to have lots of these – on football governance, illegal wars, media phone-hacking, etc. Does anyone know what actual function they have? I assume that if they served any purpose, Tony Blair, Rebekah Wade and Shaun Harvey wouldn't be raking it in still.

Football isn't some strange sect at the fringes of society. It's a reflection of the actual society that we live in. I don't think Greg Clarke's comments help gay footballers, and they further compound the negative and unhelpful attitudes towards people who attend football matches. The BBC isn't helping either, by making the simple leap from gay footballer to suicide in that article:

Justin Fashanu became the first player in England to come out as gay in 1990, but took his own life aged 37 in 1998. No male professional player has come out while playing in England since.

It's more complicated than that.

To round up the Town news, today's scheduled friendly at Notts County has been called off. My limited digging couldn't find a reason why. Brevity seems to be the trend for the club's press releases lately, with Andy McMillan's departure getting similar treatment. I'm not going to complain. UTM.