Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 11 January 2012

11 January 2012

Little did your West Yorkshire Diary know, when I sat down at my mate's house in Bradford to watch Town lose rather pathetically at home to Luton back in October, that we would embark on this tremendous run of one defeat in 16 - and, more recently, five league wins on the trot. Because, quite frankly, on that night back in October, we looked like we could lose to anyone.

We had just lost our tenth of 18 league games. We were 15th in the table and seemingly staring into non-League nothingness. It's easy to forget that this impressive run of form actually began with very little form at all. Remember the two-goal lead we threw away at Bath? Remember the two goals we had to claw back against Newport because we spent 75 minutes being completely shit? In and among all that, there were two good performances against Port Vale. And, in my mind at least, it was that home victory in the replay that gave our current crop of players the self-belief they needed to play to a level the managers and fans suspected they were capable of.

Last night's victory was a hugely impressive one. Town went to a team higher in the league, who had only lost once at home all season, came away with three points and received plenty of plaudits. Town fans got excited after the local BBC station declared the Mariners as "the best team to have visited the Abbey this year". Can we beat the teams above us? Well, all you need to know is that bears are fans of Catholicism and Bradley Woods is the Pope's preferred pooping spot. Or something like that.

Well done also to the 425 Town fans who made the trip down to Cambridge on a typically cold January night. That's a tremendous turnout and the club can be proud of its growing throng of support on the road. As we all know, times are hard and it's not easy to justify to your loved ones that you're spending a big wad of cash on a team decorated with failure.

Since that infamous conversation between Shouty and the equally shouty Pontoonite earlier this season - when we had played quite well but lost to the now-nearly-defunct Darlington - we've been repeatedly informed by chairman club director Deadly John (Topcon) that there is indeed "no fackin' money". The voiced postalveolar affricate-friendly Cambridge manager Jez George acknowledged that, despite our supposed skintness, we still 'shop on a different level', and that our paid-for striking duo in Hearn and Elding made the difference last night. That's an interesting observation. There's no money - except when we want to buy players or hand out nice 18-month contracts, then.

Now, I'm not one to piss on anyone's bonfire but I'd like last night to be more than just an isolated victory. Town's next tricky away test is at Barrow, and although we're now above them in the standings I would class a victory at Holker Street - where they've been equally hard to beat - as more evidence that this good form is sustainable beyond the setback when it arrives.

The last time the Mariners won five on the trot was back in March 1990, when Beats International were number one with 'Dub Be Good To Me' (which was more recently 'done' by that Professor Green bloke - who, incidentally, isn't a professor). I had just turned seven and got a massive birthday cake in the shape of a football pitch from that bakery down Oxford Street in Cleethorpes. Back then we beat Doncaster, Hereford, Exeter, Rochdale and Scarborough - and also went on to defeat Gillingham and Lincoln too, so we don't have to leaf our way any further into the annals of Town if we do finally get one over on our nemesis Bath at Blundell Park a week on Saturday.