Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 16 April 2013

16 April 2013

Tonight, the Mariners continue their post-season warm-down / pre-play-off warm-up programme at Woking. Indeed, Woking's last match against Macclesfield on Saturday (won the first half 5-0, lost the second 0-4) seems to have borne all the hallmarks of a July friendly. This is a match that should ideally be played on a warm, sunlit evening and watched on a grass bank, the prohibition on beer drinking in sight of the pitch relaxed as players and spectators exchange pleasantries during breaks in the action, and mingle in the clubhouse afterwards. The kind of match that is enjoyed in the moment but instantly forgotten; the kind, between sides with nothing to play for, that the play-offs tend to minimise.

To the injuries and other absences we already knew about, add James McKeown, who has a bad toe. That's not an injury that would have got your Middle-Aged Diary out of Games when I was a boy. Perhaps his mum, or indeed Greg Fleming, who stands to benefit, wrote a very persuasive note.

Incidentally, I lack the confidence in my own typing and proof-reading to risk too much of a laugh at the expense of the Telegraph, who originally headlined tonight's opponents as Working. At least they did not take the additional R out of their nickname. Far from friendly, calling our hosts cads would surely have led to pistols at dawn.