Cod Almighty | Diary

Justice for the 96

24 March 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: You know a game is lacking a certain amount of dramatic interest when you find yourself debating whether there is such a bird as a seagull and, if not, what sort of gull it was swooping around the terrace, presumably hoping to pick up some stray chips. It was, I believe, a herring gull and the chips looked excellent, as did all the other food on offer at Nuneaton – which is a lot more than can be said for the football.

Don't get me wrong: the trip to Liberty Way on Saturday was enjoyable, but that was definitely more because of the atmosphere, the company, the ease of the journey and a nice lunch at a local Harvester than for anything happening on the pitch. Except, of course, Rodman's cracking goal. And the result. As John Tondeur put it so succinctly on Twitter: never mind the quality, feel the points.

Nuneaton certainly didn't show the same skill and organisation as they had at Blundell Park in August. But maybe having your manager quit for a team a dozen places below you in the league and then have the caretaker manager not bother to attend his first game in charge is enough to dishearten any team.

It was also pleasing to be able to go to Nuneaton on Saturday rather than having the match postponed to a Tuesday, or more likely a Thursday, evening because of another game at Wembley. Yes, it would have been nice to see Craig Disley raise the FA Trophy yesterday, but it would still have been a non-League trophy. With Town back in fifth place in the table after some unfavourable results for teams around us, my hopes of a trip to Wembley for something much more meaningful have been revived.

It would be nice to think that Town could push on and get three points from tomorrow's game against Luton but their comparative records over the last ten games makes that seem unlikely. Luton have won seven, drawn two and lost one game, scoring 28 goals and conceding three along the way. Town, on the other hand, have won three, drawn three and lost four, scoring 13 goals and conceding 11. I don't know about you, but I'd happily settle for a boring 0-0 draw.

Oh, and here's something which the club hasn't announced yet, but which I spotted on Chester's website. All matches on the weekend of 11–14 April will kick off seven minutes late to mark the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, meaning that the match at Blundell Park against Chester on 12 April will kick off at 3:07pm.