Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Thursday 19 July 2012

19 July 2012

Miss Guest Diary writes: I eventually bowed to the excitement surrounding the new signings and renewed my season ticket. Not online as I had planned because, after introducing the very laudable couples discount, the SNOS didn't allow this to be claimed via the website. Why does it always feel like the club is shooting itself in the foot?

My first opportunity to view the new players came in Tuesday's game against Doncaster and, on the whole, they didn't disappoint. I can't see that Hatton adds anything to what we already have in Bradley Wood, but Colbeck looks exciting, Cook committed and mobile (at least more so than Elding), and Aswad Thomas is everything I could wish for (apart from the hair). I'm not sure yet about Niven. I think I was too distracted by the awfulness of the 4-3-3 in the first half and the great wing play from Colbeck and Soares following the switch to 4-4-2 to actually notice much of what Stacy Mark II was doing. I'll pay more attention at the Hull game tomorrow.

West Yorkshire Diary said quite a lot about the formation debate yesterday, but I'm going to add my two penn'orth anyway. Shouty has admitted he thought that Town "had more of the ball and were the better team" in the second half (when playing 4-4-2). But that didn't stop him telling John Tondeur, rather defensively I thought, that Town need to be able to play different formations to take account of how the opposition might be playing. I'd just like to pose this question: who thinks that Alan Buckley spent much time worrying about the opponents' formation? Surely the best way to win is to ensure your own team are playing to the best of their ability in a formation they understand and let the opposition take care of itself. But what do I know?

Yesterday's diarist suggested that I might want to take up the topic of the possible new stadium but, as someone with a fairly sanguine disposition, I feel that either of my Mardy or Deviant colleagues would do it far more justice. But reading the article about it in the Telegraph did lead me to ponder when 'shops' became 'retail facilities'. Probably about the same time football clubs began to think that out-of-town stadiums were a good thing, I suspect.

Travelling to the match on Tuesday, I heard Burnsy interviewing Steve Bruce (referred to as Miss Marple in our household for some long-forgotten reason) on Radio Humberside. In the space of one short conversation he talked of not being "partial to" a decision when he obviously meant "party to" and referred to his players "getting caught short" and needing to be "tied up". It promises to be an entertaining season.

Try and get down to Blundell Park tomorrow as the proceeds from the game will go towards funding Town's youth academy. If the prospect of seeing Miss Marple's Hull isn't sufficiently enticing, there will also be the opportunity to have your picture taken with some Town players. That privilege will cost you £5 and, who knows, maybe some of those proceeds will also find their way to a good cause.