Cod Almighty | Diary

High balls and high finance

9 February 2015

Miss Guest Diary writes: Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it? I was feeling a little fed up on Saturday morning, having made the decision not to go to Forest Green because it seriously broke my rule of not undertaking a car journey longer than two and a half hours without an overnight stay. By 5pm that decision seemed very wise.

I had spared myself the disappointment of seeing Town lose with what sounds like a dreary performance, if the manager's talk of bad decisions, missed chances and individual mistakes is anything to go by. And I was also spared the prospect of being manhandled by over-zealous stewards for attempting to have a bit of fun. Is a beach ball considered to be a dangerous object now? Seriously?

Town's chances of catching Barnet and gaining automatic promotion seem a little remote now. Of course, many of you – including my other half – never thought Town could do better than the play-offs anyway. But I have been harbouring a sneaky little hope that Town would 'do a Mansfield' and storm the division in the second half of the season. Now it seems to be all about making sure we finish second or third so that the second leg of the play-off semi is at home.

I'm not sure, given that our away form is still better than our home form, that playing the second leg at home would actually improve Town's chances of winning. But if we lost, it would rule out that long, bitter trip home rueing missed opportunities. And mean we wouldn't have to hear the opposition's tannoy announce the sale of Wembley T-shirts before we've even left the ground, or witness scenes of vandalism by Town supporters, which happened at Newport and Gateshead respectively.

You may have seen last week that Cod Almighty has teamed up with the Mariners Trust and are inviting people to submit what they consider to be the best XI from players who appeared in a Town shirt between 1971 and 2002. I don't have the depth of experience of some here at Cod Almighty Towers – whose choices you'll be able to see in the coming weeks – as I only started to watch Town in 1990. But here, for what it's worth, is my XI: Crichton, McDermott, Handyside, Futcher, Croft, Donovan, Groves, Burnett, Bonetti, Birtles, Mendonca.

Meanwhile, Lincoln City appear to be in meltdown. Unlike some Town fans, I don't wish any ill will to the Imps or their supporters – I think small community clubs like ours should stick together in the face of the ever-escalating excesses of the Premier League. So I was sorry to see news that Lincoln's bank has called in their overdraft of £380,000 and suggested they sell their assets to repay the debt. Even so, I won’t be rushing to invest my money in the 3 per cent bonds they are peddling. Twice the market rate of interest for an unregulated investment in an insolvent company? I reckon Town have a lot more chance of automatic promotion than I'd have of getting a return on that investment.