Cod Almighty | Diary

Once a Town player...

30 March 2015

Miss Guest Diary writes: The Town are going up, the Town are going up... maybe. Another great day for Town on Saturday: three points from victory over Welling plus slip-ups from Barnet and Bristol Rovers, who drew with Alfreton and Macclesfield respectively. When word got around at Welling that the Alfreton equaliser was a 94th-minute penalty by Bradley Wood, the cheer that went up was tremendous. He's one of our own, he's one of our own, Bradley Wood, he's one of our own.

The atmosphere was pretty special again, with the 620 Town fans actually outnumbering the home support and keeping up a constant barrage of singing and chanting. I particularly enjoyed the round of 'Happy Birthday' sung to Toto shortly before kick-off. It is apparent that the players appreciate and are lifted by the away support – and this was confirmed by Carl the Magnayficent in his post-match interview with John Tondeur.

It seems unlikely that we'll be going to Welling again next season – even if Town fail to go up, as it looks like Welling will be going down. I, for one, won't be sorry. Yes, it was an enjoyable day: the journey smooth, the pub we went in beforehand fine, even the view from the small stand was OK. But I am a native of north London and we simply don't like going south of the river. I suspect many Grimbarians have the same feeling about going to the north bank of the Humber.

Sitting on the train out of Charing Cross, the names of the places we passed through like Falconwood and Kidbrooke were meaningless. Only Lewisham had any resonance because I went there once in 1973 to see a screening of The Godfather – a long and tedious story not worth repeating here. Then I reflected that the places near where I grew up in north London like Hendon and Dollis Hill would mean little to someone from south London. And of course none of it means anything at all to the average Town fan. Where am I going with this? I have no idea. Possibly I'm trying to distract myself, and you, from getting too excited about Town's current position in the league.

I heard people at yesterday's game suggesting that Town might 'do a Mansfield', referring to the 2012-13 season where Kidderminster Harriers had seemed odds-on for automatic promotion until Mansfield went on a tremendous run after Christmas. The advantage they had was the sheer number of league games they played in the last three months of the season: 21 games of which they won 18, claiming 54 points out of a possible 63.

In the same period this season Town will be playing 15 games, giving a maximum of 45 points up for grabs. Having already dropped eight of those points, Town haven't made it easy for themselves. But looked at from an optimist's point of view, all Town have to do is win one more game than Barnet and Bristol Rovers and we will finish ahead of them. Up the Mariners!

And finally, congratulations to North Ferriby United on winning the FA Trophy. I know they're Yorkies from the north bank but everyone loves an underdog. And they have 'our' Nathan Jarman. And now Wrexham fans know how it feels to lose on penalties.