Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 25 March 2011

25 March 2011

Tamworth again. For the fourth time this season Town fans will find it unfathomable that plucky Tamworth are bossing us in midfield and refusing to countenance the notion of taking turns to win matches. Hang on though - Tamworth have lost four straight matches and lost eight of their last ten. And Jay Smith has a knee problem. And Town have two new managers. So, muses your Guest Diarist, hmm...

One of the gruesome twosome did a 'freeview' pre-match talkabout on Town's superb new official website yesterday afternoon. A lot of management phrases came out in a big heap from a very determined-sounding man. He sounded like he was flush with promotion, admiring the quality of his squad like the salesman who just earned an upgrade from the basic 1.6 to the two-litre GL company car in 1984. It's only in the heat of the early summer that he'll realise that he forgot to argue for that air conditioning option. Because Mr Scott-Harris senior reckons Town have loads of quality players just itching to turn it on for him. Injuries? Suspensions? Pah, there are loads of players to choose from, apparently. He'll not be saying that in six weeks' time, I reckon.

New managers take a big risk when they demand half a dozen players. New managers take an even bigger risk when they say the current squad is plenty good enough and hint that they have secret ways of getting more out of the existing players. The Boston dream team have arrived, as the Italians say, at the perfect moment: two home games in quick succession with a few days to prepare first. They may not have seen the best of Town on Tuesday night, bar a couple of half-decent goals, but they have had a flavour of the worst. They've seen responsibility abdicated; they've seen a lack of leadership and the complete absence of a winning mentality. And they've seen it's not a good idea to stick Bradley Wood on the wing and bring Michael Leary on to see a game out.

So who could be in and who is ruled out? Well, Kempson's got a hurty hamstring so becomes the injured Kempo rather than the suspended Kempo. Coulson's got stitches in his heel but should be in contention. Hudson's back from suspension and has disarmingly told the Telewag: "As soon as I did it I thought, what the hell have I just done?" Ademeno is not suspended yet and one hopes that embarrassing fact has now got through to those who matter. Hughes, of course, is still missing more sessions than he trains so is unlikely to figure again. No word this week of the Bore Thursday groin, but Leary has had an ice pack on his foot.

Neil Woods was mesmerised by pace, although his tactics failed to exploit what we had. Dave Moore was seemingly not and his Tuesday swansong saw a distinct lack of it. Whether Messrs Scott-Hurst will opt for the likes of Ademeno, Makofo and Bore in the side, and target them to run at the opposition, we will have to see.

I get the distinct impression this management pair we have landed ourselves comprises the nasty, shouty one and then the one who comes along to try to mend fences afterwards. No more philosophical chucklings to be had here; no more rueful grins, gentle reader. This pair have already got half an eye on their next job, I'm sure. But they seem to be considerably underestimating the difficulty of sorting out this new one. "There's loads of players to choose from," the shouty one said. To be honest I stopped taking his words in after that - it was all a tumble of totally meaningful but totally meaningless phrases. Was it talk or was it torque he was on about? See yer.