Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 2 April 2012

2 April 2012

Miss Guest Diary writes: Well, is that it then? Even the optimists among the fans seem to have declared this season's play-off dream well and truly over following the dismal defeat on Saturday.

Shouty mumbled that he was "not going to say it's done and dusted", but his disappointment at the result was apparent in the interview he gave to John Tondeur. But that doesn't excuse this exchange:

JT: Do you think they were the better side?
RS: Don't know, did you?
JT: Yes I did, actually.
RS: Don't ask me then.

I am going to call him Snippy from now on. I don't know what that would make his sidekick. Snappy? Chippy? Drippy? Maybe we could find something suitable in this list of potential names which Walt Disney came up with for Snow White's seven dwarves.

I don't often comment on team selection or tactics because, having never played football, I feel I have no credentials as a pundit. But people around me in the Pontoon were saying the same: why wasn't Andi Thanoj playing in midfield? That would have allowed Frankie Artus to start on the wing, arguably his better position, instead of Peter Winn, who brought very little to the party. I would like to see Town dispense with the short-term loanees and give our own players a chance to show what they can do. And give Kiernan Hughes-Mason a start - surely he deserves it.

It's been a few years since Town could coast through the final month of the season because we're going nowhere. (I don't count last year because we had the new management to assess.) When the points in a game don't mean anything, I resort to looking for other reasons to care about the result. When watching Match of the Day, because I don't really care about any of the teams, I root for one or another because I do or don't like their manager; or they have a player I admire or despise; or one side's fans are really irritating (yes, I do mean Newcastle). Of course, I'll be rooting for Norwich from now on. I don't know about you, but I felt very excited seeing Our Ryan Bennett on MOTD.

So what are the non-points reasons for caring about Town's run in to the end of the season? Well, there's that old Darlington hoodoo to break. We need to do that this season as, the way things have been going financially, it could be their last. And I wouldn't mind us losing to Wrexham if it meant they could overtake that snidey lot at Fleetwood and win the league. Am I unusual in looking at games this way?

And finally, news comes that Luton have sacked their manager. I flagged up last week that there were calls for his head after they failed to beat Town, so I think we should definitely claim another victim for the Grimsby Reaper. I dare say our managers will be hoping it doesn't give Town top cat John Fenty any ideas.