Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 2 January 2012

2 January 2012

Miss Guest Diary writes: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago my reliance in recent years on Town's Boxing Day fixture to bring some excitement to Christmas. Well, this year the game against Lincoln certainly came up with the goods, with the added bonus of a New Year's Day rematch thrown in. Two games yielding six points, five goals and three hours of atmosphere-fuelled football is enough to make this a week to remember. Have we finally found the silver lining to being non-League? This festive season switcharound of two games against Lincoln inside a week, which may just have lit a rocket under Town's season, is not something that would happen if we were still in the Football League.

Looking back at both games, I feel that yesterday's was the better, more consistent performance but it couldn't match the second half of the Boxing Day game for excitement. Coming back from being a goal down and going on to win away from home is always special. Add to that the non-stop vocal support from 1,700 Town fans and the sheer fury emanating from some of the Lincoln fans and you definitely have the epitome of fever pitch. Oh and I think we won the battle of the away support too, Lincoln bringing only 748 to Blundell Park.

Returning to yesterday, I was very impressed by the new signing, Ian Miller, who looked very calm and competent. Garner also played well again. It looks like the management might face a selection dilemma of a good kind when I'Anson returns to fitness. There were also some downsides to the day: Wood's 10th yellow card, Disley's ankle injury and, worst of all for me, Manny Panther's dismissal. I didn't see the incident myself and, judging from the shortage of online comment from fans, neither did many other people.

If there is no successful appeal, then it may be that we won't see Manny in a Town shirt again, as his loan spell was due to end next Saturday anyway. That would be a shame. His arrival in midfield has added something indefinable, but positive, to the mix of the team - a bit like that final dash of seasoning which turns a decent meal into a really tasty dish.

Town's exploits of the last week were deemed sufficiently noteworthy to warrant a short report in the Mail online, notable mostly for the terrible fishy pun "theatre of sea breams".

It's a shame the Cod Almighty T-shirt man has quit as it seems we may have a new Town 'hero' in the making. The Twitterati seem to have spent most of last night posting #eldingfacts. Here are a couple of my favourites: