Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 27 September 2010
27 September 2010
Mardy Diary writes: There's nothing we can know that isn't known. Nothing we can see that isn't shown. Nothing we can save that can't be saved. There's nothing they can say but they can learn how to play the game. It's easy. I'm not going to repeat myself. Pat Bell has the report covered and the other bits are in the factfile. Read them.
We'll use this opportunity, shall we, while the dust settles, to catch up on your emails. First up is Chris Beeley:
"I listened to the Gateshead game via the miracle of that computer thingy last night, and read the diary for today, and I'm thinking along similar (kind of) lines.
"I think getting a point away from home on a Tuesday night at a (by the sounds of it) soulless venue, against a team that, despite what Woods tells the Telegraph, have done pretty well in their earlier games in this league, was ok.
"I think Woods and Peacock (and other players) are putting pressure on the team by moaning about the performances every week - let's just manage the expectations shall we lads? Accentuate the positive! Who do we think we are, moaning when we don't win every game, Chelsea or something? In the league we're in we are not going to have great players playing magnificent football every week, you have to go back to basics and start again. I can't help but think this negative attitude is impacting on us on the pitch, especially in home games when crowd and team seem to be unable to handle the fact that we don't score five times in the first half without breaking sweat. Let's stop expecting to bounce back to the Football League straight away, this is a hard league/conference/premier thing, and it may take some time to get out of it. Let's get real and get behind the team instead of heaping more pressure on."
There's something to be said for adjusting expectations appropriately. Nobody is happy to be down here, but we're not a Championship club playing a cup match against a non-League outfit. And so our belief that we're better than "the likes of" Gateshead and Altrincham (oh, the irony) will only serve to hinder our escape from this league, and the only way that attitude will change is if we spend a prolonged amount of time down here. I'm just going to walk in to the corner and have a bit of a cry now, if that's ok...
And while we're on the topic of "the likes of" tin-pot clubs like Gateshead, Richard Lord has this to say:
"I took this photo of Gateshead's home support about a minute before kick off and quite frankly I'm amazed that the overall attendance was more than 800. Not sure how many Town fans made the trip but for me personally it was the smallest attendance figure I've ever been a part of while watching the mighty Mariners."
On the subject of crowds, I looked up attendances for Buckley's first spell last night as I remember them being quite low. They weren't quite as low as I remembered, but certainly, before the ace cup run, we did see a handful of sub-3000 gates. I'm surprised our attendance has held up so well this season to be honest - I fear the next couple of matches will see lower gates. I'm not sure what the lowest gate I've seen at BP was - probably an Anglo-Italian Cup game. Although perhaps the gates for those matches just felt low in comparison to the normal gates at the time. What's the smallest attendance you've experienced for a competitive game at BP? Drop us a line and let us know, and no, Lincs Cup games don't count.
Over then, to Mark Wilson who writes:
"Because I am an inquisitive soul and like education-based or informative radio I often listen to Radio 4's 'More or Less' which aims to enlighten us on maths and stats in everyday use (stay with me). Today they were explaining how the Prime Minister's salary has become a benchmark in most media and anyone earning more is a fat cat, anyone any less is a reasonable human being and can pop round for tea anytime. As part of this they talked about what average UK earnings are, what a banker can expect to earn and what most bus drivers earn. Then they announced that the average salary at Scunthorpe United Football Club was £160,000! That fucking depressed me.
"And yes, that is more than the Prime Minister earns."
No, it's no good. I'm welling up again. Phil Watson will cheer me up:
"all other pubs in Hale should be blown up!"
"Now that you've published this on T'Interweb, and bearing in mind the Doncaster Airport precedent, I have begun baking all at CA a cake with a file in it. Say hi to George."
You're forgetting about that team of expensive lawyers we employ to keep us comfortable in our ivory tower, we're above the law here. One question it does raise though: if you were to threaten to blow Blundell Park sky high, would that be an act of terrorism or an act of charity?