Cod Almighty | Diary

Let's have nothing to be defensive about

11 August 2015

Here's a proposition for you. The second match of the season is a far more useful indicator of what lies ahead than the first.

It isn't, to be honest, a proposition that your Middle-Aged Diary sets much store by. However, the 0-0 draw we played out at home to York in our second ever Conference game proved a far better harbinger of what was to come than the 1-0 win we stole at Crawley after their keeper was sent off in the 2010-11 season opener. (That was Steve Evans's Crawley of course, so don't waste any remorse.)

Second games often accentuate the trend set in the first. But in the promotion season of 1989-90, we won at Torquay after a goalless draw with Cambridge. Relegated to the third flight in 2003, we took some heart from a draw at Plymouth, before a home defeat by Port Vale confirmed we were on our way to a second consecutive relegation.

The start of the football season makes Dr Watsons of us all, happily theorising before we have enough data to draw any firm conclusions. Publishing league tables before the end of September ought to be a capital offence, especially when perpetrated in a newspaper owned by an expatriate Australian.

However, Town have form when it comes to trying to sit on a one-goal lead, inviting inferior opposition to play without fear. And Paul Hurst has form when it comes to talking about players he has discarded. You'll recall that when they were invited to comment on Charles I'Anson's success in developing a career in Spain, the replies of Rob Scott and Hurst were less than gracious.

Tonight's opponents Barrow won on Saturday after two goals from ex-Mariner Andy Cook. Hurst, in his less likable Mr Snippy persona, cannot quite say "good luck to him" and let it go. After "Just because... I released him, it doesn't mean I don't think he's a good player", he adds: "I think he needed to take a few things on board better, and I would say I was right on that front because [Barrow manager] Darren Edmondson is still saying the same things."

All in all, it'll be a good thing if Town can win, and win well, tonight. It'll give Hurst one less thing to be defensive about.