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Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 25 June 2009

25 June 2009

So, farewell to Steven Wells, as much an inspiration in your Idle Diarist's teenage years as Dave Gilbert, Thomas Hardy, the Smiths, and Jan Boyd the English teaching queen of KEVIS were. I can't remember the last time I thought someone outside of my mates was "an inspiration". After years of being surrounded by people desperately trying to justify their role, their expense, their very existence with the tiniest piece of something, my cynicism has consumed possibly not just my outlook, but also my very being.

The weekly plod has brought me to Thursday, but already I've got a Friday feeling. Not a very groovy Friday feeling either. Why? Because Town are already bastard banging on about bringing games forward from their preset Saturday kick-off day. Why? Because Northampton have asked us to. Why? Good question, no answer, as Town again seem to facilitate another club's wishes, before reeling out some half thought through attempt at justification - their, ahem, Friday Family Night Football initiative. "Initiative". It's too governmenty, almost desperate even.

The SNOS then drivels on "the club believes that through pro-active marketing we will be able to achieve an improved attendance for certain games" using that age-old PR technique of distracting you from the reason they are taking this action in the first place. Which was? That's right - Northampton asked Town to drop their kegs and take it up the arse. Therefore the club spinning this fixture move as part of their pro-active marketing is bullshit. No brainstorming or blue sky thinking there.

So why move a game now when it is to be played so late in the season? If Town were doing well come the back-end of this coming campaign - admittedly something even the most rose-tinted of fans cannot predict given the mental scarring of the past few torrid seasons - would the club still shift the fixture? The club have 'rescheduled' games once the season has started before, and I suspect they will do again. Are the club anxious about being accused of being too reactive, scared of appearing to have no long-term planning, and also fear the poison pen of the IRATE SEASON TICKET HOLDER OF TWENTY YEARS?

Squirreled away at the bottom, the more immediate match against Accrington at the end of October has also been brought forward, as has the obligatory pre-Christmas-shopping-friendly shift, Morecambe's visit to Cleethorpes also now a Friday night affair.

Still no official word on Peter Sweeney becoming a comrade in Newell's upcoming revolution (when Peter Bore will find being "first against the wall" isn't a promise of a frisky encounter round the back of the Main Stand), so in the meantime drop us a line about what you think of the Sweeney and why he should sign up with the Mariners.

Oh, and before I leave you waiting for the rural charms of Guest Diary tomorrow, a quick hello to Stephen McNally, a solicitor in Wetherby. Thanks for being a fan of our work! You should be careful who you brag about reading Cod Almighty to, y'know! See yer!