Cod Almighty | Diary

Let's get on with the game

8 October 2013

There is a certain line of defence which goes: 'Never mind X; we should be concentrating on Y.' For example, the chief executive of a bank might tell a shareholders' meeting: "Never mind the the huge pay package I've just awarded myself; we should be concentrating on our rates of profit." Or a Labour politician might say: "Never mind the fact I've just voted for the slaughter of the first-born; we should be concentrating on beating the Tories."

Never mind last night's fans' forum. We should be concentrating on tonight's clash with Cambridge.

Deep as your Middle-Aged Diary's commitment is to bringing you all the Mariners' news if not quite first-hand, then at least something slightly closer than 'I've heard from a man, who's heard from the Telewag who's heard from sources close to the club's major shareholder', last night I found I could not face listening to the forum. I offered this slot to any diarist who did want to listen. There were no takers but two of them described the event as "sugar-coated shite" and "just a load of Fenty-speak and Paul Hurst refusing to admit we're playing 4-4-2". I sometimes wonder how much you care who writes which diary, so I'll leave it to you to decide whether you can be bothered to write in with guesses as to which diarist made which comment.

The Telegraph has provided transcripts of some answers. A vague concern has been expressed that describing Ian Miller as our third best centre-back last season might be some kind of motivation tonight. However, the question Hurst was answering, describing Miller as last season's best central defender, did not give him much scope. If he had said: "You are quite right, because that Shaun Pearson is a waste of space and I don't know what we were thinking of, bringing Chris Doig and Clayton McDonald here", we would have a lot more to be worried about. Within the limits of what he could reasonably say, Hurst was quite positive about Miller.

Describing tonight's match as 'top of the table' is factually correct, but only in the sense that a battle of the bands between the Beatles and Gerry & the Pacemakers could be said to be between the two best Liverpool-based 1960s pop groups. We are second only on goal difference and could fall as low as eighth if we lose. Cambridge will be top tonight whatever happens. That inequality makes the result actually far more important to the Mariners.

Alan Goodall has left and Ross Hannah is injured. Expect Aswad Thomas and Liam Hearn to take their places. This is a night when we exiles wish we could be there. If you are going, chant not only for yourself but for everyone who will be following from afar.