Cod Almighty | Diary

Can't take my eyes off you

23 March 2015

Miss Guest Diary writes: You've no doubt heard the adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I'm really hoping that isn't the case with current Town favourite Carl Magnay. Because in his interview with Humberside after the Eastleigh game on Saturday he was just about perfect.

From his confident assertions that "we can still win the league" and that the players are "looking up and not what's behind us" to his rueful acknowledgement that the fracas with Deon Burton was an "unsavoury incident" for which he deserved his yellow card: perfect. When questioned about his future at the club Magnay said he "owes it to the gaffer, the fans and the club to stick around" and that he "didn't think there was a better club to be at outside the Championship".

Of course, Magnay might change his tune if Town fail to get promoted and, with no new contract having yet been offered, he might be yet another good player who Town let slip through their fingers. When Cod Almighty's match reporter was interviewed on Humberside the other week he said that if Town don't get promoted this season somebody should be shot. I think the same should apply if the club doesn't secure the services of Magnay for next season.

I'm pretty sure that opinion is shared by quite a number of other fans if the huge "His name is Carl Magnay" banner displayed in the Lower Findus before the game is anything to go by. I'm just sorry I got to the ground too late to see it for myself. Hopefully it will make other appearances in forthcoming games.

I don't know about you, but I was a bit disappointed by the Scarves At The Park display. Yes, I saw many fans wearing scarves – I even dug out a 25-year old home-knitted effort of my own – but there seemed a curious reluctance among many in the crowd to wave them about, or even hold them aloft. Maybe this sort of demonstration only really works at away games, when we are supposed to be in the minority. Whatever the reason, Blundell Park was pretty subdued again on Saturday: just like a library, as we are fond of singing to the home crowd when we are on the road.

On Friday Retro Diary mentioned that Eastleigh's nickname of the Spitfires was only coined in 2005. Wondering why a club who had been in existence for 60 years without a nickname would suddenly get one, I did some googling. Of course, I should have known: when they made it into the Conference South for the first time in 2005 they held a competition for fans to choose a nickname. And this year they've changed their mascot from Spitfire the Dog to Brooksby the Bear. I seem to recall Boston United did something similar a few years ago when their mascot changed from the Pilgrim Panther to Percy the Penguin after a fans' vote.

I have railed against people who call the FA Trophy a "tinpot" competition and claim Town are too big to be non-League, but this sort of thing just screams small-time, amateur club with no proper traditions and makes me pray that Town get back into the Football League as soon as possible.