Cod Almighty | Diary

Just because I'm having a miserable time, I do see why you should

15 September 2015

On those occasions when you would usually go to the game, but this time you can't make it, what do you want to happen? This might make a good question for one of those personality tests the magazines used to run. Perhaps they still do.

It so happens that Middle-Aged Diary is in that position tonight. Living in Manchester, the Chester trip is usually one I look out for, but not being a driver, the evening kick-off makes it a non-starter. Instead, I'll be stood outside a retail park near the City of Manchester Stadium waiting to deliver my son to his uncle, who has a spare ticket for tonight's European four horsemen of the apocalypse League game against Juventus. Whether that makes me a good father (putting my son's needs before my own) or a bad one (having a son who'd prefer to watch Man City than Town) is perhaps an even better question for a personality questionnaire. I'll stick to my first question though, at least until I know what you charge for psychotherapy.

If I was rational and benign, I might be saying "Well of course I hope its a cracker and Town win well. I can always watch the highlights on YouTube and a good game tonight makes it all the more likely the next will be good as well." If that is your answer, you are a better person than me. That is if you are a person and not an imperfectly programmed virtual Football Supporter Bot (version 1.2.1.)

To think like that misses so many of the intangibles of supporting a club and being at a game when you don't know what is going to happen. However, at least the Man City game (which you'll understand I'm not going to myself) offers an alibi. In years to come, I might be saying "That night James McKeown scored a hat-trick? Couldn't make it. I was stood outside Toys'R'us in Ancoats instead." If you can't be there when the remarkable happens, make sure you have a rock-solid hard-luck story instead.

My usual, mean-spirited hope is for a Town win after a dreary match. It so happens the last time I couldn't make it to Chester, that is exactly what I 'missed'. However, Town aren't doing dreary this season. Chris Doig is talking of fighting fire with fire and Pádraig Amond is promising a shoot-out with Omar Bogle. The team news is as you'd expect, with only Marcus Marshall and Josh Gowling likely to be added to the squad from last Saturday.

It seems to me we're set up for a 6-5 win, Bogle's winner arriving in injury time. And if that doesn't put the kybosh on your hopes for an enjoyable match, nothing will.