Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 8 August 2011

8 August 2011

Mardy Diary writes: That's a bit strange, isn't it: the Football League starting like that and here we all are still twiddling our thumbs. No more friendlies to look forward to, just the main event this coming Saturday. I couldn't really engage with the football on Saturday even though it was there, unavoidable, all over the TV screen. And a badly planned holiday means I'll not be engaging properly with Town until the Cambridge match. Nevertheless, on Saturday I'll be nervously refreshing the scores on my phone from 2:57 until 4:56, you know, just in case.

Pre-season, if you want to just look at the results, has largely been a success this year. Losing to teams in the Football League but beating those below us seems about right. In fact, the numbers alone look great for away form - perhaps not so good for home form. There have been plenty of positives to take from the games too: team spirit, fitness, a range of goalscorers, winning from behind. But then there are those little doubts, aren't there? Is Elding just a week or so behind in fitness or is he just another in a long line of half-arsed strikers floating their way down the league? Are we still complacent when playing teams we think are beneath us, as was seen in the first half against North Ferriby? Is the midfield working, or does it just seem that way because of the level of the opposition?

The only way we'll know for sure is to get on and play the games, of course, but this last week is dragging isn't it? The match against Fleetwood will also give us chance to see some of those players who played for and largely disappointed us over the past few seasons: Rob Atkinson, Paul Linwood and Peter Till are all signed up for the Cod Army, and now there are reports that Peter Bore is on trial there. Ex-players have a habit of haunting their former clubs, but surely not the majority of our ex-players? I would take Connell scoring a hat-trick against us (alas, he seems to be bench-warming already), and I'd not mind the return of Danny North or Joe Widdowson for the opposition - but the rest? I don't want to see them perform at all against us when I know deep down that at best they are inconsistent and at worst just plain lazy or rubbish.

I suppose if they suddenly appear to be consistently good players then it raises more questions about the club and how it has been run for many years now. We can hope that things have changed and that this is a new era of desire, effort, ability and entertainment - but when I see us losing 2-0 at half-time at North Ferriby United (yes, it's only a friendly) then the doubts start to creep in again. What if it's not the players or the managers? What if it's just the club? What then?

Is it Saturday yet?