Cod Almighty | Diary

Tell them everything's going to be fine

13 August 2015

Devon Diary here again, hello and welcome to my second attempt – we go again!

I think we can safely say that analysis of the Kidderminster game has probably been done to death by now. What more can be said other than the Harriers need to look carefully at the width of those turnstiles? A decent-sized inflatable shark is not going to fit through there, no way. Apart from that, Aggborough is a lovely ground with four proper stands and everything.

To any of the nay-sayers moaning about the result, slagging off Hursts, still criticising McKeown for that (admittedly awful) mistake, whatever – just chill out, it's early doors and as fellow Devon Mariner Lewis Budd pointed out afterwards, we got a point this time after losing our last two away draws on penalties. Anybody at the game will remember being in that crowd, singing "we've got more sharks than you" for many years to come. So just enjoy it. If you want to get tetchy about something then there are far worse things to concentrate your ire on, the latest scandal being Lincoln City's insistence on offering us a paltry 1,750 tickets for the derby at the end of the month.

After the Kidderminster game I checked the other Conference sorry, National League results and spotted a few familiar names. Liam Hearn and Andy Cook were both on the scoresheets for their respective new clubs. And when seeing the name Kabba scoring the winner for Welling I had to double-check that it wasn't former Mariner Steve. Being naturally cynical due to my being born at Croft Baker – and maybe a touch pessimistic after years of torment following the fortunes of [insert many a manager's name here]'s black and white army – I blogged on Sunday evening about the curse of the former Town player.

I've since found that Ali Mills wrote about this too – his piece essentially says that I am wrong about this and former players actually don't score that often after all. If Tuesday's result against Barrow is anything to go by then Ali's right and we really don't have nothing to worry about when Hannah and Hearn come to visit. I should probably point out that this last sentence does not constitute a jinx.

Did you get to Blundell Park on Tuesday? I couldn't due to geography, so went to the pub instead (the Cromwell Arms in Bovey Tracey has a fine selection of St Austell and guest ales and dishes out free sarnies after the quiz, so drop in if you're passing). If the highlights, reports and tweets are anything to go by then Town were different class and that will surely carry forward to Saturday's game with Bromley.

Almost as important as the result was the 5000+ attendance, which was made up almost entirely of home fans. Home fans who turned down the chance to watch Messi on the telly in favour of wandering down Grimsby Road (or Cleethorpe Road, pedants) to watch Monkhouse, Bogle and Toto earn the Mariners their first win of the season. Only Wrexham came close to matching that figure in the rest of the Bananarama league, and on a Tuesday night that must be the sign of a club going places.

Andy Monkhouse seemed fairly relaxed and happy with his lot in his interview on Mariners Player yesterday. He sounds a bit like Michael Vaughan too, don't you think? The gaffer, on the other hand, conducted his post-match interview on Tuesday night as though he'd lost his dog to a tragic poisoning. I'm hoping that this wasn't the case (again, not a jinx) and hopefully Hursts is smiling on the inside – but come on man, cheer up!

What will this weekend's game bring? Well, apart from a Bromley team and a coach or two of their faithful following, I am expecting Town's form to continue and Bogle and Arnold to scare them witless in front of a bumper crowd. Bromley won their first match at home against Wrexham but lost on Tuesday away to Woking so it looks like they don't travel too well – much the same as Theakston's Old Peculier doesn't. OP needs time to settle and, like a poor landlord, Town won't allow the Ravens/Lilywhites that luxury.

Ale analogy over. On a positive note, we don't seem to have picked up any more injuries. Marshall and JP are still absent with leg twinge and tummy gyp respectively – so expect a similar line-up to the first couple of matches, as there's no point changing what certainly ain't broke. The only question, then, is about the back four, but as Gowling is looking good at centre-back and Toto is a nailed-on cert I think the boss will stick with them in the centre, with Tait and East pushing up as the team looks to build on the Barrow result.

After years on the wilderness wondering where goals are coming from we suddenly seem spoilt with maybe three of the squad capable of notching up the mythical 20 goals this season. But who will reach it first? Yeah, I know it's only August, we've only played two games and I know we haven't played any of the other big teams, but you don't win owt with negative thinking. Monkhouse by January. And that is not a jinx.