Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 7 January 2013

7 January 2013

Miss Guest Diary writes: Regrettably, the optimism I displayed here last Monday has faded somewhat in the face of the two fairly lacklustre points gained by Town in the intervening period. Having won four games in a row, including the 4-1 drubbing of Lincoln on Boxing Day, Town allowed Lincoln to boss the game on New Year's Day and ended up lucky to scrape a point. They could then only manage another draw against Hereford on Saturday, when they were clearly the better side. It certainly feels like two points dropped.

What has happened in the last week or so? Could it be that the imminent departure of Nathan Pond, the uncertainty of the Ross Hannah situation and the introduction of new players has disrupted the conditions of success which Cod Almighty's original diarist wrote about so eloquently last week?

And what of Town's new loan signings? Richard Brodie was neither as good, nor as bad, as some of his advance publicity had suggested. By which I mean that his disruptive behaviour was limited to a couple of half-hearted dives and a bit of chuntering at the referee. Unfortunately, neither did he add much to what Town already have in Andy Cook, apart from a slightly better ability to control the ball. It was noticeable that he and Cook seemed to have difficulty playing together and frequently ran to the same spot. This could be accounted for by the fact that, as he mentioned in his interview with the Telegraph, Brodie has spent the last three seasons playing in 4-3-3 formations. Well, I hope he gets used to playing 4-4-2 pretty quickly - the alternative is not to be contemplated. While the Cod Almighty team do not agree on all things Town (the desirability of Friday football, for example), I think we are unanimous in our abhorrence of playing 4-3-3.

And then there's Jamie Devitt: there was a tangible lifting of the crowd when he appeared. He is not remotely match fit - stooping with hands on knees and gasping for breath after about 10 minutes - but his superior skills and attacking threat were obvious. For a change, I am feeling quite pleased that I will miss Town's next three games due to them being in far flung places I don't care to visit. By the time they next play at Blundell Park on 26 January I am expecting that Brodie will have got used to playing 4-4-2, Devitt will be fully fit, Aswad Thomas will be back from suspension and, who knows, we may even have signed Ross Hannah. Ooh, I can hardly wait.

It was sad to see Nathan Pond depart on Saturday and, from the way he shook hands with all his team-mates and gave his shirt to someone in the crowd, it had an air of finality about it. Which is a pity, but understandable when Town are already paying the wages of two good centre-halves in Pearson and Miller. Maybe in order to afford Hannah, or an equivalent striker, Town have to accept that they can't have Pond as well. Who really knows, apart from the Town managers and board of directors, of course. But that doesn't stop us speculating, does it?

Town have announced the new dates for the matches postponed last year: 12 February away at Nuneaton and 12 March away at Mansfield. You probably already know that the postponed match at Gateshead has been scheduled for tomorrow, but don't bank on it actually taking place. Apparently, a laser-levelled pitch was installed there last summer, since when several games have had to be postponed due to waterlogging, including last Saturday's. That'll teach them to go in for new-fangled technology.