Cod Almighty | Diary

Waiting for the email from the boss telling us to go home

31 December 2014

It's 11 in the morning at the end of December, and Middle-Aged Diary is writing to you now just to see if you are better.

You might be expecting team news for tomorrow's home game with Macclesfield, but everyone is playing their cards close to their chest. Scott Brown hopes to play, as he is slightly miffed he didn't against Lincoln. Macclesfield appear not to have a squad, just a first XI and three subs. The first person to say 'Kidderminster all over again' buys the drinks tonight.

Are you in the mood for some low-grade, crude number-crunching? Thought not, but tough. Town are achieving 1.5 points per game both in home matches against teams currently in the top half of the table and away games against teams in the bottom half. However, those home games have been shit or bust: three wins, three losses. So don't expect to be debating whether it was 'two points dropped or one point gained' tomorrow evening. By contrast, our travels to the strugglers have yielded three draws out of six games.

Our best points per game ratio (2.33) is when we travel to top-half teams. The only defeat in six such matches was at Sincil Bank, and as Lincoln are largely in the top half because of us, they may not count. Our record in what ought to be the bankers - home games against bottom-half clubs - is just 1.875 points a game.

You can spin all this in several ways. The fact we have got many of our home games against strugglers out of the way, and that we have yet to play Barnet or Eastleigh, may be good things. No doubt someone will say that record stands us in good stead for the play-offs. However, I've a nasty feeling we said that last season as well. To hark back to yesterday's diary, it seems to me to be telling us something about how we cope with expectation.

You might of course just describe our form as erratic, something in which we have revelled over the years. So if you want a bit more to read, take a look at our Christmas XI while the decorations are still up and then send us your thoughts on Town's most erratic players.