Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Saturday 1 October 2005

1 October 2005

Town's lead atop the fourth division dwindles to a single point after an illness-hit squad claims a useful point at Shrewsbury, equalling the club record sequence of nine unbeaten away games. Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala, Gary Croft and Andy Parkinson miss the game with one of those weird virus things that only affect lower-division professional footballers (although Croft, bizarrely, appears on the substitutes' bench, free to infect further teammates), and the affliction doesn't stop with the playing staff, as Russell Slade is also forced to stay home and hand control of the team to Graham 'Rodger' Rodgers. The magnificent Steve Mildenhall saves an early penalty which nobody thought should have been awarded, while his opposite number Joe Hart produces a couple of good second-half stops to deny Michael Reddy. Town move to 24 points, while Leyton Orient's 3-1 win over Mansfield takes them to 23, overtaking Wycombe, who draw 3-3 with Chester.