Cod Almighty | Diary

When it starts to rain, everything's the same

27 January 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: As The Beatles once sang: if the rain comes they run and hide their heads. And there was certainly plenty of running going on at the weekend – at Luton, at Dagenham & Redbridge and even some burly rugby players at Newport. For Town, though, it was more of a damp amble as the rain came before they could kick off.

Fortunately for us, we'd decided to give the game a miss, having had a thoroughly miserable time witnessing the midweek 3-0 drubbing there in 2006, staying in a dismal B&B and searching in vain the next day for something interesting to see in Wrexham before we hightailed it back home. I've just made the mistake of rereading the match report, which depressed me all over again. But back to the bright side: at least we weren't among the unfortunate fans who had another wasted trip on Saturday.

Instead, I spent the afternoon reading the increasingly bizarre exchanges on Twitter between Town fans and the Football Conference (@conferencefooty) about how clubs like Town who have a good run in the FA Cup or Trophy, or like Braintree who have a dodgy pitch, can avoid having a huge fixture backlog in March and April. The general consensus from the fans' side seemed to be that the season should start earlier and there should be more midweek games early in the season. The rather haphazard offerings from the Conference's official Twitter account included a suggestion that non-League clubs shouldn't enter the FA Cup and that the season can't start earlier because ground staff need more time to reseed the pitch. Does grass grow more slowly for non-League clubs then?

Back in the present, the Grimsby Telegraph head up an article entitled "Grimsby Town closing in on new striker" with a picture of Alan Connell, but the piece itself fashionably rains on our parade by mentioning two League clubs who want to sign him. So, a time-wasting space-filler which I won't bother posting a link to.

No news yet ahead of the game at Cambridge tomorrow, except Paul Hurst's rather enigmatic musing that "we go into it having had a rest, but the other concern is that we go into it rusty". Make of that what you will. I can tell you that there's no parking at the ground for away fans and it'll cost you £18 to get in. Just keep your fingers crossed that the rain holds off.