Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 12 February 2008

12 February 2008

As may be expected of a man with a 10-match unbeaten run behind him and two trips to Wembley in his sights, Lord Alan Buckley is in ebullient form this week - and making the most of his position on the crest of a wave to splash water into the faces of some of his detractors. His TV interview last week seemed pointedly unsentimental about his attachment to GTFC, and since the weekend the Town boss has expounded at length to BBC Sport about his side's current run, with some choice quotes to remind us of its context. "In football if you win two games you're the best thing since sliced bread. If you lose two they want you sacked," reflects AB, glaring menacingly around Blundell Park. "As an experienced manager I take a more balanced view on that. But all of a sudden it's nice for the supporters to be optimistic." It is nice, isn't it? One hopes they can retain a bit of faith next time there's a downturn in form - not to mention a memory longer than a goldfish's.

And while he's on form, Buckley has also seen fit to kick Lee Richardson while he's down. Following his side's 4-2 defeat at BP on Saturday the Chesterfield boss publicly denounced the dive with which Danny North won the penalty that opened the scoring - and his counterpart has retorted with some vehemence. "I don't like to hear managers criticising players from other teams publicly. I don't do it," says the Town manager, who seemingly has no such scruples about criticising managers from other teams publicly. Richardson, he goes on, "is a relatively inexperienced manager and maybe he should show a little bit more respect to the opposition". The Diary would simply have pointed out that, had it not been for the point that Chesterfield cheated out of us with two dives for penalties at Saltergate in 2004, the Mariners wouldn't have been relegated to the fourth division in the first place, and so North and Gary Jones would never have been in a position to do likewise on Saturday - but what the hell; it's all good fun.

While we're on the subject of ripping people to shreds, Dave Clark has emailed the Diary with an enjoyably vigorous and articulate tirade against Cod Almighty. "Whilst I like the nostalgia of your website, I have to say that you lot are the biggest bunch of whingeing cunts going!" he begins. "Town beat Chesterfield in what is arguably the best game we have been in since our relegation to League 2, and you lot complain that we didn't make the win comfortable enough! No compliments for the team or Buckley either, regarding a 10-match unbeaten streak - what's the matter, not enough to whine about?!" Well, this makes a nice change from the usual charges of rose-tinted glasses and sucking up to Buckley! Put simply, Dave, the Diary tends not to bother commenting on the actual game very much, because by Monday lunchtime it's all been said already (not least on this site, of course, in Tony's match report and the post-match factfile). As for "complaining that we didn't make the win comfortable enough", you've missed my point, which was that the Sunday Mirror couldn't have actually had a reporter at the game if the first word they could think of to describe Town's win was 'comfortable'. But yes, it was a belter of a match, and how nice it was to see Danny Boshell embarrassing the idiots who booed his name before kick-off.

Old Davey boy ain't finished there, mind. "Also, when will you nimby gaylords give Fenty a break with the stadium debate?" he continues. "It isn't even a debate any more anyway - if it gets built, it's going to be in Great Coates, end of. And why not one of you thinks the new ground is a good idea is beyond me! The pros of a move outweigh the cons by such a huge factor that your negative views just make you seem like a group of nagging old women, desperate to ensure that positive changes are averted for yet another 100 years, minimum! Get with it, you tools!" Right - first, calling the CA team "nimby" is as inaccurate as it is clichéd, since none of us live in Great Coates and the Fentydome would not in fact be in my back yard, Guest Diary's vegetable patch or even the Postbag's allotment. Furthermore, regardless of whether you like the idea of the stadium - and yes, we have every confidence that it will be a soulless corporate hellhole and hobble the club with insurmountable debts - our whingeing is the very least that's necessary to balance the relentlessly upbeat, unquestioning coverage it receives elsewhere. You might be perfectly happy about that £6m hole in the finances, Dave, but there are plenty of fans who aren't, and if the Telegraph is too scared of Fenty's bullying to persist with the subject then we'll have to do it ourselves.

Hang on - whaddayamean "nostalgia"?

One thing we might be justly criticised for is the absence of a pre-match factfile for tonight's trip to Macclesfield (in case you'd forgotten). So let's follow Guest Diary's excellent example last Friday and do a little one here instead. Peter Till, Rob Atkinson and Nick Fenton are a bit woozy following Saturday's exertions, while for the Silkmen Martin 'Hurrrrr, He Must Be Shagging Her Off The Telly, Hurrr' Gritton is hamstrung, while midfielder Levi 'Had A Trial With Town In July 2005' Reid is suspended after his fifth booking of the season. Ye olde Man Citye defender Richard Edghill is newly uninjured and could make his first appearance since November. Macclesfield have taken just two points from their last seven home games. American self-storage space occupies three times the area of Manhattan Island. This Diary was brought to you by Coronation Street, Mexican Kids at Home, The Doves of Venus by Olivia Manning, and my new computer not working with my external hard drive because Windows Vista is rubbish. Bye!