Cod Almighty | Diary

If you are going to Trafford this season, bring a book, or plenty of beer money

21 August 2019

Any insights Middle-Aged Diary offers you on last night's match - when Town drew 2-2 with Colchester - would be second-hand. So I will ask just two questions for another diarist - or for you - to answer.

First, few things beat the euphoria of a late goal to complete a recovery from two goals down. But is that euphoria masking the failings that had us two down in the first place? At this stage of the season, the league table really does lie, but Colchester had just one point from three games before last night. Yes, it's a mark of progress that we dug ourselves out of a hole, but better still if we'd not been in the hole at all, surely?

Second, have we reached the point where our youth team graduates - Ahkeem Rose, Harry Clifton, Max Wright and Mattie Pollock - should be in the team now not with a view to their future development but because they are actually the best in their positions? There was a time we'd watch them, or predecessors like Andi Thanoj, like anxious parents at a nativity play, just hoping they'd not forget their lines. Of course they still need need to be protected; Rose is currently injured in any case and Clifton is carrying a slight knock. But Town do seem to play better when they are fit and on the field.

I was following Town through alerts last night, while I watched Trafford v Workington. Workington I'm old enough to remember as members of the Football League: they were among Town's promotion rivals in 1971-72. A remote town on the Cumbrian coast, the side was disappointingly identikit, the players calling with the usual Scouse and Manc accents. Perhaps they were true Cumbrians but, like rock and roll singers adopting American accents in the 1950s, they have to sound like they were brought up in the shadow of Anfield or Old Trafford to succeed.

It was a dreary game, but one thing I took from it. Mid-way through the second half, there was a long delay while Trafford's physio came on. The usual respect shown when any player is injured was broken when one of the Workington hard-core behind the goal shouted out "The trainer's wanking him off." There'd been a few signs the Workington supporters had that attitude that clings to a newly-relegated team, so at that moment i was ready to dismiss the lot of them, hoping not only that Trafford would win but that Workington would lose.

But then the would-be wag raised the pitch of his already shrill voice: "He is, he's giving him a wank." He was getting more insistent because he was not getting the laugh he had hoped for. He thought the problem was that no one had heard him, when in fact the problem was with him. Everyone else thought him so crass they just did their best to ignore him. Workington, like Trafford and like Town, have the odd person who now and again says something idiotic, at a match or on social media. Don't generalise, and don't give them any more attention than they deserve.

In other news you may have missed, Grimsby Town Women on Sunday set an example our men would emulate two days later, fighting back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with a well-regarded Pinefleet Wolvreton AFC. Initiating a hat-trick of Town teams going 2-0 down, that is also what the under-18 side did against Burton Albion. Unfortunately, in the youth's case, the scoring stopped there.