Cod Almighty | Diary

Nine Mighties dancing

20 December 2013

Mardy Diary writes: whoosh, swish, thunk, tip-tap, thunk... GOOOAAALLL!

Cor! That was a bit of alright last night wasn't it? Town playing like a Town team, cohesion, passing, movement, lovely, lovely goals. Let's forget about the first ten minutes: that was just Town sussing out Kidderminster. The other 80 were superb.

McKeown not called upon much but still finding time for a good reaction save here and there. McDonald and Pearson looking like unpassable mountain ranges. Hatton and Thomas surging; Aswad looking especially lively. Kerr's calm, connectiveness and neat passing. Disley making himself available to pick up the ball in our box and making himself available to pick up the ball in their box.

Neilson showing why we missed him so much in the second half of last season, and Rodman his match on the other wing, offering trickery and crosses. Hannah a menace, scampering about and so unlucky to not score alongside an ever better John-Lewis putting himself about, flicking on, holding up, laying off.

A proper team performance from one to eleven. With this team, even after conceding a goal, you just believe they're going to get themselves back in the game. After Kiddy scored there was no dropping of heads, no shrugging and giving up. Just professionalism: get on with it and get yourself back into the game.

The other thing that is pleasing to see is our calm on the ball – exemplified by Kerr. For too many years we've seen players hoof the ball up the pitch as soon as they're under pressure. While there are still times when that happens – indeed, there are times when that should happen – it's nice to see a player keep the ball, turn their man and play it off to another Town shirt in space. This is football.

Of course this run will end and we'll have to see how the team pick themselves up after a defeat. But if they keep playing like this there's no reason to think we won't be in with a chance of winning the league. If we can keep the players we have and resist the temptation to tinker in January (and thankfully Hurst seems quite sensible here) then we should do well.

And if you're still not happy after all that, here's a clip of Mighty Mariner dancing/exercising/whatever it is you call that. Have a good weekend.