Cod Almighty | Diary
Lovey-dovey stuff
28 October 2015
Wicklow Diary writes: I’m declaring it a good week to be a Town fan. I've had a look back at my recent diaries and it's too easy to be negative. A quick getaway with a "Don’t have nightmares" cheery paragraph after a thousand words of horror. Believe me, it's quicker to write this stuff when things are going down the toilet or you’re airing one of your many grievances. And bad news is good news. One day I’ll get my hands on the web visitor numbers for CA, The Fishy, the official site and some Twitter hashtags stats and stick them in a graph with Town results to confirm this.
So this week I’m going to shelve several lucid rants about the Premier League, UEFA and the FA Cup (did you see draw the other night? These companies are so desperate to flog us stuff, even the pot for the balls had four advertisers stuck on it). I’ll hold off on the one about the chocolate bar wrappers looking the same but the bars inside getting smaller. I definitely won’t be commenting on this predictable monstrosity apart from to say the second last paragraph lifted my spirits.
I’m not even going to get upset about this morning’s tea break discussion of the origins of the Omar Bogle song (or the Yaya-Kolo Toure song as some people inexplicably refer to it). My mention of shaking the cakes in the early nineties to Dutch dance duo 2 Unlimited produced blank stares and a trip to Google for my colleagues. Turns out the oldest at the table was three when the song was in the charts.
Of course there are nagging doubts about things on and off the pitch. There have been for as long as I’ve been a Town fan and there probably always will be. However, after I overdosed on one classic 80’s movie last week, Middle-Aged Diary's musings yesterday reminded me of a quote from another: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around for a while, you could miss it."
Sometimes you let the good times pass you by without really appreciating them. As Town supporters, we should be better by now at recognising the seasons to remember.
Stranded on a train the other day by a signal failure, I had a look through the CA archives. Crikey almighty, Town have been dealt a bum hand and then played it badly. (By the way, I hope crikeyalmighty.com is registered by someone at the club for some future use). A period of club history that could be summed up by "However bad things may appear to be, they can always get worse". That said, when the clouds finally break, I don’t want to be the one complaining about the sun in my eyes.
We’ve got a platform of eleven games unbeaten and are in touch with the league leaders without stringing three wins together. When we hit top gear where will we be? We’ve an exciting squad that in my eyes is the best we’ve had since 2006 and perhaps even before that. Not to mention a home draw in the cup to look forward to. Remember the excitement watching the Third Round draw in 2013? Forget Bond premieres and being in the hat with Coventry and Sheffield United, that’s what real excitement is. I want it again – and we’re just two wins away.
We even threaten from set pieces these days – they used to be the signal for fans and opposition goalies alike to catch up on programme notes. And headers! Podge’s thumping equaliser against Torquay earlier in the season was a beaut but the way JP destroyed his marker against Southport was something we haven’t seen much of in a Town shirt.
The consistent quality of our away days is like nothing we’ve seen before. Enjoy one while you can still get tickets. Remember the scramble for Alfreton last year (for the tickets, not for the first train to Sheffield and the beer glass smash-athon en route). When we turn the draws into wins that’s what the final three months of this season will be like.
Those draws. How do we turn one point into three? Any golfers out there? Do you know who the other Podge, Padraig Harrington is? Double Open champion and US PGA winner? Don’t laugh, I know it’s golf and not mortal combat. You wouldn’t have known this looking at Harrington’s eyes when the 2008 US PGA tournament came down to the wire. Sergio Garcia looked like he wanted to win. Harrington looked like he wanted to kill anyone who would get in the way of him winning.
Beyond Town, most people have several favourite Brian Clough stories. This is one of my mine, taken from Deep into the Forest by Daniel Taylor.
"Nottingham Forest ... went 42 successive matches unbeaten and, like Arsenal, attracted great acclaim for their style of football. Yet Brian Clough’s great team did feature two players, Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns, who formed the ugliest, meanest central defensive partnership of their time and, in the days of disciplinary points, strategically used to plan their assaults on rival centre-forwards depending on who was closest to a suspension.
Lloyd broke his foot in the middle of the 1977-78 season and Clough immediately signed David Needham from QPR to replace him. Needham played impeccably for six weeks until Lloyd was fit again. Clough put him straight back in and Lloyd remembers it as one of the great compliments of his career. “He turned to Needham first: ‘David, you’re probably wondering why I’ve left you out. You’ve done ever so well since I bought you. David, I really can’t fault you. You’re a lovely boy. If my daughter were looking to bring a man home to marry, you’d be that man. You’re that nice, David, I’d have you as my son-in-law’. Then he pointed at me. ‘I hate that fucking bastard over there. And that’s why you’re not in the team. You’re not a bastard like Larry Lloyd. And, son, I want a bastard in my defence.’"
Do we need to start, how shall I put this, kicking people? Are we too nice? Even our teams that are remembered for their football had a tough streak. Bob Cumming, John Cockerill and Alan Pouton spring to mind as men not to mess with.
Maybe we could start on Friday night – just not too hard. Let’s give some credit to Cheltenham. Having been dicked about to travel across the country to Cleethorpes for a Friday night game they’ve rejected the ridiculous request to shift their upcoming Forest Green derby to a Thursday. A THURSDAY. Don’t tell regular / original Diary or his head may come off.
A small victory but they all count in the context of the FC United example referenced earlier. The Telegraph has been taking a quiet stand itself by using a sponsor free FA Cup hashtag on Twitter. We give the Telegraph stick but I think we all still love it. How can we not? It’s a member of the family with its collateral of years of Sports Telegraphs. It out internet-ed the internet before there was even an internet by being in newsagents about five minutes after the final whistle. This isn’t going to be forgotten by me over a few floaty banner ads.
Don’t forget, it’s Kids for a Quid on Friday so grab your Halloween Harry and get to BP and let’s do this.