Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 5 September 2011

5 September 2011

Miss Guest Diary writes: Those of you who read the diary I wrote before the season started may recall that I asked people to suggest reasons why I should renew my season ticket. None were received, so I didn't bother. Unfortunately, I have not managed to escape the torture that easily. My partner renewed the season ticket on my behalf, but we have agreed that I only go to the games I feel like, paying him £10 a time. But I, as a former public servant who knows all about the concept of VFM (that's value for money to Joe Public), have negotiated a cashback scheme. If I don't think the game has provided sufficient VFM, then he has to give me some of the £10 back.

So far the two home games I have attended - Fleetwood and Darlington - have been defeats, so you might imagine that I have demanded all of the money back; but you'd be wrong. Given the ever-worsening fortunes of Town over the last 10 years, I have long since stopped equating VFM with points gained. Instead I look for many other factors, such as: was there a period of good passing play, did we score an interesting goal, was there a crunching tackle from one of our full-backs, was the hot chocolate sufficiently chocolatey, how much moaning was there around me in the Pontoon, and was I so bored that I began reading a book before half-time? Putting aside the result of the game, I wonder what other Town fans consider to be the criteria for Town providing VFM.

In case you are interested, I got £4 back for the Fleetwood game and I was still contemplating the level of refund for the Darlington game when the Shouty incident kicked off - that provided plenty of VFM for the afternoon.

If we operated the same scheme for away games, then Saturday's visit to Forest Green would have provided very good VFM. Not on the pitch, I hasten to add - I wouldn't want anyone to think that I was naïve enough to take Town's ambling and shambling victory for a good performance. No, the value was in the crowd, who sang and chanted for the whole game - quite amusingly at times, especially when they called for sausages or repeatedly chanted back to Shouty his words of the previous week.

I often used to find being in a crowd of Town fans exhilarating. When I was training to be a counsellor a few years ago I described being part of several thousand people at a match, all yearning for the same thing, as a spiritual experience. Writing in the Guardian last week, John Crace said that he never feels safer, calmer and more free of worries than when standing in the middle of a football crowd. Unfortunately, I no longer share this feeling: increasingly I find that supporting Town is more about the peripherals than the game itself. The trip to Forest Green provided a great excuse to spend a couple of days in Gloucestershire and make a trip to the National Arboretum, something I have wanted to do for some time. Being surrounded by thousands of trees on a peaceful autumn day - now there's a spiritual experience worth having.