Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 11 January 2008

11 January 2008

It will be interesting for your Guest Diarist to see who makes the Town starting eleven tomorrow. Not so much at the back: at Stockport, Barnes' 'error' came about principally because he saw the shot so late, and the conditions were conducive to anyone succumbing to a brief attack of Robinsonitis; and Hird as a replacement for the suspended Bennett is a fairly obvious choice. No, the conundrum that intrigues me is the composition of the midfield. Toner's hamstring is better; Hunt's form has been poor; Boshell is awaiting his chance and has 'fresh legs'; Clarke played well again the other night. Hmm. But another factor to consider may be the hypothesis that Mr Toner performs better if he thinks he has something to prove. And putting him straight back into the team the minute he is fit is perhaps not the best tactic to put the cocky Irishman into the right frame of mind is it? So how about Clarke, Bolland and Boshell for a change?

Yesterday's opening Diary paragraphs were what some might describe as a masterpiece of amusing factual polemic, Mr Diary deflating Mr Fenty's ridiculous balloon with accurate biographical deftness. It prompted immediate response via the handy Diary feedback feature. The Tories responded anonymously, fuming: "today's political polemic is beyond the pale". Martin Wyburn, who may be a socialist, or maybe just has a great sense of humour, dropped us a line: "I have two things to say in response to Thursday's Diary rant about Mr Fenty and the Tory party... 'hear hear'." The Liberal Democrat readers among you predictably failed to come up with a response. I do like that Vince Cable bloke though.

And some of you have taken up the challenge issued in Monday's Diary to name the sides that Town haven't had to play in the league in the last 20 years. Grahame Tate was getting on quite well, and had come up with a list of eight before his wife started on him with this Presbyterian lecture about time-wasting. But Mike Worden was not a man to be messed with on this topic. Not only did he identify eleven teams we have not faced in the league, but he then went on to work out that the only teams we haven't met in any competition in the last 20 years are Cardiff, Manchester United and Southampton. Assuming we do actually get to play Dagenham & Redbridge a week on Saturday, that is.

What, you want the list? Well, here it is (and of course no-one has been arsed to check whether he is right; this is a slackers' site): Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Hull, Cardiff, Southampton, and Dagenham & Redbridge have not faced us in a league match in the last 20 seasons.

Any road, let's hope Town show us they can maintain their new-found winning ways at home tomorrow after a couple days off to recover from their midweek exertions. The bottom division does not feature any easy games, in my opinion, and Town have their work cut out tomorrow. But this run of games in the rest of January and in February represents the possibility for Town to not only ensure league survival but also make some decent progress up the table.

Having said that, I hope Paul Thundercliffe's prediction for Wrexham in the pre-season rough guide doesn't come true: "I had thought they could be dark horses for the play-offs, but with that keeper (who will obviously save a penalty against us in a man-of-the-match performance this season) I can't see it." See yer.