Cod Almighty | Diary

A bigger splash

21 October 2013

Miss Guest Diary writes: My mother often used the expression ‘after the lord mayor’s show’ to indicate an anticlimax. Maybe all the pre-season hype about being the team to watch this year and their 8-0 drubbing of Hyde on the opening day of the season was Forest Green’s version of the lord mayor’s show. Something is needed to account for their rather lacklustre performance on Saturday. Their players seemed bigger and better than Town’s but, even before the referee turned things in Town’s favour by sending Oshodi off, they simply didn’t seem 'up for it', to put things in football-speak.

Their manager, David Hockaday, has his own theory: that his team were cheated out of the points because the referee was intimidated by the crowd. That statement says more to me about where Town find themselves now than any other change we have experienced over the last few years. More than trips to towns we never previously knew existed, to stadiums where we outnumber the home fans, or where it’s OK to change ends to view the second half. If a manager can find a couple of thousand people chanting ‘Mariners’ or a bloke with a drum and his mates shouting ‘fish’ intimidating, it is apparent that he has never taken a team to Leeds, or Wolves, or Nottingham Forest. Oh happy days.

Our own manager remains relentlessly downbeat about the result and the performance, dishing out some praise to Ross Hannah and Aswad Thomas, but reserving judgement on Alex Rodman who "did alright". He acknowledges that Town are "in a good position in the league" before pointing out that we are only two points above 12th position.

It may surprise some people to realise that Andi Thanoj is Town’s longest serving player and I was disappointed to see that he didn’t even make the bench again on Saturday. Hurst claims not to have given up on Thanoj, but wants him to work harder on his defensive game. He then makes a rather Fenty-like cryptic remark that "he's witnessed certain things in the past and he knows that I don't hold grudges". Whatever can Hurst mean? Do tell. 

The club has announced another Chairman’s Challenge game to raise money for the youth team. Shouldn’t that be Major Shareholder’s Challenge, given the absence of a chairman? Anyway, the big news is that Paul Wilkinson will be playing in this game.

As Wilkinson predates my Town experience, I asked Cod Almighty’s Tony Butcher, who played against him in inter-school matches in the late 70s, for some reminiscences. In typical contrarian mode, his response was that Wilko was better at cricket than football and that he had a perm even before he left school to sign for Town. Tony also recalled cycling home from the sixth form one day and being waved at by a moustachioed Wilko from his newly acquired yellow Escort.