Cod Almighty | Diary

It's not about the shark

24 November 2014

Miss Guest Diary writes: What is there to write about on a Monday morning when you really don't want to think about Saturday's game? Cod Almighty's match report compares Blundell Park to Desolation Row; for me it felt more like Azkaban. Footballing dementors were sucking the happiness from the place by forcing us to relive our worst memories. And that was even before Town conceded a soft goal in the first minute.

When Paul Hurst talks of "one bad game" and having to "bounce back" against Woking, it is obvious that he is on a completely different page from every Town fan of my acquaintance. Attributing Saturday's loss and the other poor home performances to the form of the players rather than the negative formation he insists on playing (yes, I'm banging on about formations again) seems like wilful blindness. And if he couldn't see the immediate improvement in Town's play when he switched to 4-4-2 on Saturday, then he has no business managing a professional football team.

The performance of my current favourite Carl Magnay was not up to his usual standard, but he went a long way to redeeming himself with his post-match interview on Radio Humberside. Not for him any mealy-mouthed blaming of the fans but rather an apology for not being good enough. He put the two goals conceded down to "poor organisation" and, when asked about the role of the holding midfielder, went as far as he could without coming right out and criticising the manager's tactics. According to Magnay, Town should be "slightly more adventurous" at home with a "more forward-thinking midfield" and "not worry about closing the door too much". And so say all of us.

So it's on to the Woking game tomorrow. I can honestly say that, if it weren't for the prospect of fish and chips with friends before the game, I would seriously consider staying home and having a box-set binge of Grey's Anatomy. And if something doesn't change soon at Blundell Park I suspect there will be a lot more people making similar choices.