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Diary - Wednesday 12 December 2012

12 December 2012

Oh hello! You just caught me reminiscing about the time I couldn't make the play-off home match against Fulham in 1998 because I had broken my left wrist at school during a lunchtime kickabout. I ended up listening to the game on the radio when I had got back from the hospital, and I remember hearing a cracking atmosphere travel through the airwaves and into the kitchen of my parents' house. After watching Bradford dump Arsenal out of the multi-sponsored League Cup last night, it brought back memories of games against Fulham and Spurs, when Blundell Park was packed to the rafters - and, in the case of the main stand, literally rocking.

Of course, your West Yorkshire Diary wasn't there for the Fulham game - or the Spurs game, for that matter. I can only really imagine what it was like for the ground to be full, because it hasn't happened much in my lifetime - and it certainly hasn't happened recently. The closest I can compare it to is the game against Barnet in 2010 when goals from Rob Atkinson and Mark Hudson gave us all a brief belief that we could yet escape the trapdoor from the Football League.

It was while I was watching The Football League Show, or 'Manish's Football Dungeon', as someone once called it on Twitter, that I suddenly realised that no football stadium in England appears to sell out. It's quite painful to see. There's a guy, sticking the ball in the net and running off at speed to celebrate his goal. Empty seats look on. The ball goes in at the other end. There's a smattering of people grouped together, 12 rows back, clapping. All around them are empty seats. Colchester, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Rotherham, Coventry - all plush new stadiums, built to cope with big crowds and high volumes of toilet activity at very specific times - appear to be devoid of any atmosphere. Sure, gates at those clubs might have increased, and revenue may have increased, but those bloody empty seats make me despair, they really do.

Right, well I've successfully managed to start off on a positive note and thoroughly depress myself within three paragraphs, so maybe it's time to consider the news.

Town are no longer table toppers. Newport stuffed Luton 5-2 last night, highlighting their title credentials. If Town can maintain their good form, the last game of the season is looking tastier than some fish and chips at Steels (if that's actually possible).

'Mouthwatering', 'groovy' and 'subtly designed' are words and phrases you perhaps wouldn't expect to see in a typical NSNOS article. But this is no typical NSNOS article. This is your chance to buy someone else (or maybe yourself, if all your friends hate football) tickets to see Town's next three home games for just £50. That's, um... hang on - that's £16.67 per ticket. OK, maybe it's a bit of a saving depending on where you sit, but there must be something else? Well, there is. The tickets come in a "groovy yet 'subtly' designed, Mariners' wallet/Christmas card", apparently. You get "actual" match tickets for the games against Hereford and Hyde. I presume you get a metaphorical one for the Lincoln match.

Liam Hearn has told us from the treatment table that he feels the strikers are doing a good job in his absence. Earlier in the season Town appeared to struggle for goals from their front players, but following the arrival of Ross Hannah on loan and the emergence of Andy Cook's latent talent, I'd tend to agree with last season's goal machine. He mentioned Greg Pearson - I'd forgotten about him.

Finally today, the Fishy's Rob Sedgwick has written a review of Brian Laws' autobiography, Laws of the Jungle. If, like me, you don't have time to read books but would still like to pass opinion on them when you're discussing them with other people, then you might find Rob's review quite helpful. We'll be reviewing the book shortly here on Cod Almighty too.