Cod Almighty | Diary

The enigmatic chicken

30 September 2013

Miss Guest Diary writes: Wow, three games with Paul Hurst going solo as official manager and playing 4-4-2 equals two wins and a draw, with eight goals for and three against. Isn't that promotion form? OK, I know we're only just over a quarter of the way through the season, but it is a bit exciting, isn't it? And it was also exciting to see Liam Hearn come on and score with almost his first touch. Let's hope this signals his return to top form and a place in the starting line-up.

I don't know what it would take to get the manager excited. His post-match interview is, once again, a masterpiece of understatement. Nine minutes of comment and analysis in which the highest praise is "pleasing" and the current run of form is "nice". He was equally phlegmatic in his pre-match talk with the Telegraph, which can be summed up as "it's early days" and "let's see how it goes". I bet he's never counted a chicken in his life.

My personal philosophy is to try and live in the present: dwelling on what might have been is always a fruitless exercise. But it's hard not to speculate on where Town might have been in the table had they not wasted the first six weeks of the season playing a formation which created almost no scoring chances. Playing 4-4-2, Town have almost doubled their goal tally in the last two games. Now if I could just persuade my other half to stop harping on about the loss of Miller and Wood in defence, I'd be very content with watching Town at the moment.

Talking of ex-Town defenders, there has been some buzz around that Macca's autobiography It's Not All Black & White gives some interesting insights into the operation of the club by ex-chairman Fenty. Cod Almighty will be reviewing the book soon. In the meantime a review by Too Good to Go Down gives a good flavour of the book but does indicate that Macca has pulled his punches on occasions. A bit like his playing style: defending without tackling.

We're not likely to be reading Macca's book in our household: I prefer to read novels and my other half only reads newspapers. He can often be heard repeating that old joke from 'Porridge' that he "read a book once – green it was." But I think even we will be make an exception for Alan Buckley's book, due for publication in November. We are confidently expecting that he will be pulling no punches.