Cod Almighty | Diary

But if you can stand the test you know your worst is better than their best

19 December 2013

If you write a football zine or blog, there are two distinct ways to approach it. You can pretend to be a serious writer or you can embrace the subjectivity and have fun.

For all the recent hot air about Town's failure to beat 'teams like Welling', the Mariners have pretty much shaken off their erstwhile inability to win efficiently against the sides who won't be challenging for the Conference title. Our first year or 18 months of non-League existence seemed to be more or less one long 1-1 home draw against Hayes & Yeading United. But results across the season suggest that Paul Hurst's team have become effective at scooping up points in the games they 'should' be winning.

Now it's the games against the other teams in the top five that seem to present the problem. Town have played them three times this season, losing at home to Cambridge and Nuneaton and drawing at Luton. One point, then, from a possible nine. With the title still a pretty distant prospect, the Mariners will need to sharpen up their act against their promotion rivals to stand any chance of going up through the play-offs – starting tonight against Kidderminster.

That's what your original/regular Diary would write if I were pretending to be a serious writer. As it is, though, I'd rather embrace the subjectivity and have fun. I like it when Town play Kidderminster. I like it because it reminds me of the amazing home-made pies, soup and curry at Aggborough. And because it reminds me of a thrilling FA Trophy semi-final leg I watched there in the 1990s, just by chance, between Kidderminster and Hyde United. And because it reminds me of the hilarious spat between Kidderminster striker Youssou Diop and physio Jimmy Conway at Blundell Park in November 2004.

If you want the runners and riders for tonight's televised Mariners/Harriers clash, there's a good preview from Harriers Online, one of our favourite websites. If you want to know how to watch it on the telly, I'm sorry, I haven't a clue.