Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Monday 15 April 2013

15 April 2013

Miss Guest Diary writes: Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it. Last Tuesday, after Town beat Dartford and secured their play-off place, it looked pretty likely that Mansfield would go up automatically and that Town would stay in fifth place, meaning an encounter with Kidderminster in the play-off semi-finals. But the results at the weekend have seen Kidderminster go top once more and Town only two points off fourth place, which would ensure avoiding both Mansfield and Kidderminster in the semis. Looking back, the draw at Luton on Friday, which seemed perfectly adequate at the time, is looking like a missed opportunity to try and secure that fourth spot.

But part of the package when you're a football supporter is agonising over the "what ifs" and "if onlys". Who's to say, in reality, whether Town have a better chance of beating Newport or Wrexham than they do of beating the other two teams in the top four. On their day, Town can beat anyone in this division but, let's face it, when they are having an off day, they can lose to anyone. I suspect fans of the other play-off clubs are making similar calculations and thinking similar thoughts this week.

The fact that the managers chose to play Southwell on the wing, with Cook, Marshall and Disley not even in the squad, seemed to indicate that they were not going all out to win the game at Luton. This communicated itself to the Town fans, who spent the entire game singing and chanting and generally creating a party atmosphere - something I definitely wouldn't swap for a fourth place finish. Apart from a few ill-judged chants in the first half - from the offensive "you're just a town full of bombers" to the wildly inaccurate "you're just a bus stop in Watford" - the wits were out in force. After spying a group of Town players sitting at the other end of the stand, Luton were repeatedly assured that "our best players are in the stand" and, rather optimistically I thought, "we'll never play you again."

It was lovely to see Simon Ford playing in the Town back four again, bringing back memories of those heady days in the second tier. He slotted in nicely and had one of those games where you know he must have done a good job because he wasn't particularly noticeable. And a Tweet from John Tondeur revealed that Wayne Burnett was in the ground. If only Wayne (he's wonderful, you know) had been sitting in our stand too, that would have made the evening perfect, no matter what the final score.

But, as usual, the club are managing to spoil my good mood, and my goodwill. They have announced ticket arrangements for the first semi-final match at Blundell Park. The article implies, though does not state explicitly, that tickets will go on sale on Sunday, rather than being available after the game on Saturday. Not really what you want to hear when you live miles away from the Grimsby area, is it?