Cod Almighty | Diary
If the Devil is six then God is seven
23 January 2015
Retro Diary writes: So that's it, we're out of the Trophy. Before Wednesday night quite a few people were urging me to stop moaning about this cursed competition and embrace it. I was getting a bit fed up of B&Q anyway – my rockery is fully stocked with alpines, my kitchen cupboard handles and under-sink pipe are repaired (I know, thanks for asking), and I was almost ready to go back to Blundell Park of a Saturday and give the Trophy a chance.
So apparently 'chucking' a competition because you think it's beneath you is unacceptably arrogant, and I had to show some remorse for such haughty elitism, 'suck it up' and support the thing. Actually I find this a very peculiar concept which seems to worry more about our opponents than ourselves, but there you go – we are obviously the 'club that cares'.
As it happened, I didn't have to torment myself. We did the noble thing; we didn't chuck it. We played a decent starting eleven and had a good go. Paddy's goal was great. Also, on the night I have to say I caved, and my dislike of losing to any opposition outweighed my dislike of the competition, and I found myself involuntarily willing Town to equalise for a third time in the closing seconds of the clash.
Was it a no-win situation, or no-lose? Both, really. We let Gateshead gloat for a few minutes in exchange for the chance to give the rest of our season exclusively to the only thing that really matters. Now, with no excuses, we will find out how good we really are. But this is one defeat that will be particularly easy to put behind us.
So, deep breaths; tomorrow it's Nuneaton after all. Can the team bus go the A46 way this time, please – with our record it's only a matter of time before we're late for the same team twice.
After a truly momentous-feeling victory over our candy-striped table toppers last weekend, our disrupted week has been less than ideal preparation for an eminently winnable follow-up, as even manager and players have conceded. You can blame the Trophy itself, or Gateshead for opting not to finish it first time. Or if you're really desperate for something to blame there's always the weather. On Monday, as soon as reports started filtering down from Gateshead of a geordie wearing a jacket, one knew instinctively that football would be impossible. Unless you're asking the FA to sanction Gateshead for being too far north, it's probably better to let it go.
This season Nuneaton are in trouble. Manager Liam Daish says he isn't giving up on survival, which is a phrase to sink the morale of even the most optimistic Boro fan. Daish has said that too many of his players are happy just to be affiliated with the club and 'get the tracksuit'. They're not big and dirty, and too many times recently they've needed a half-time bollocking to get them going.
The margin between Nuneaton and safety is already of a magnitude that everything on the pitch is bound by sod's law to go wrong. They have made three signings in the current window, and one, Jack Nardiello from Stoke, is already injured; he faces a fitness test tomorrow. They will be under instruction to burst like whippets from the traps, so we plainly need to damp that down and dominate from the start.
We still don't really know what's happened to Aswad, but he's been signed off with stress, and his Town future isn't certain. He asked to become a free agent but we haven't agreed. Aswad–Neilson was not so very long ago the most feared left side in the division – sadly long dismantled, and now maybe, although we live in hope, gone for good. We don't like to see anybody genuinely suffering, so we wish him all the best and hope to see him back.
For us, Lenny is a slight doubt, having been whacked in the head on Wednesday. Head injuries are different and require a doctor's permission to return to the pitch, so it's not just a case of whether he feels OK. Neilson has had an unspecified illness this week and is also a doubt.
So come on, Town. The way's clear – they're all big games now.