Cod Almighty | Diary

Don't buy those cheap advance rail tickets just yet

28 January 2016

Wicklow Diary writes: After last week's bad news for Callum Bastock, it appears that Josh Sunter has joined Callum in picking up a second serious injury in the space of a year. Josh suffered a suspected fracture to his right shin during yesterday's match against Doncaster Rovers. Donny, managed by Rob 'The Stick' Jones, won the game 2-0 against a young Town side which featured only three of the first team squad, Mackreth, Venney and Clifton.

The injury to Sunter gives Paul Hurst another position to consider before the transfer window closes on Sunday. The youngster was the fourth name in a central defence depth chart that suddenly became a cause for concern when Shaun Pearson required a fitness test before the Altrincham game.

I am trying to adapt a calm, removed view of the transfer process. I can't see what's happening behind the scenes and have no control over it anyway. The same goes for the form of our title rivals. It's bad enough getting stressed out on Town without getting your pulse up during our rivals' games. Especially as FGR and Cheltenham continue to pull rabbits out of hats in the closing moments of games. This is unfair against a team like Town, who have spent 10 years stuffing rabbits and anything else we can find into hats and up sleeves for someone else to spring. 

This afternoon will see the announcement of more TV games and the defecation of more football marketing nonsense onto the steaming pile. We can guess from the "four in eight days" tweet this morning that Town's game at Cheltenham will probably be part of the Conference's "EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA".

EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA from @btsportfootball will be released st 3pm today. @Vanarama National #FourInEightDays

— THE NATIONAL LEAGUE (@TheNationalLge) January 28, 2016

Apart from the marketing types getting paid for this mulch, who benefits from the BT Sport/Conference TV deal? It certainly isn't the fans who attend games. A recent exchange between the Conference Twitter account and several Town fans illustrates where the people who actually go to games sit in the pecking order.

The Conference's official Twitter account is a smiling, cheerleading presence which will retweet praise and good news but quickly gets tetchy and, as some Town fans have found, blocky when asked difficult but genuine questions. You can hide facts under layers of marketing, branding and re-naming of leagues. When these flimsy layers are tested with a decent line of questioning, the smile soon disappears. Recent questions about the live TV schedules for March and April received typically defensive and cryptic replies.

The only thing clear from the responses was that the schedules require planning and coordination with several VERY IMPORTANT stakeholders: BT Sport, the clubs, BT Sport, the Football League (to avoid a clash with their telly games), BT Sport, the Conference, and finally BT Sport. Each stakeholder gets careful consideration and input – except the people who actually get off their behinds and go to the game. This sounds crazy but actually makes total sense to BT Sport. The fans through the turnstiles are the one 'demographic' that definitely won't be tuning into the broadcast. Why should they get a say?

In most cases the £6,000 payment to the home team doesn't cover the loss of the reduced gate of moving the game from 3pm on a Saturday

Surely the clubs should be doing more for supporters – in either the negotiations for individual games or the actual overall deal that they receive. Realistically they are the only chance for fans to have their voice heard in the process. It's worse than that, however, in that the clubs don't even seem to be fighting their own financial corner.

I can understand Premier League clubs swallowing the terms of their deal with Sky in exchange for billions. Conference clubs, however, receive a pittance. In most cases the £6,000 payment to the home team doesn't cover the loss of the reduced gate of moving the game from 3pm on a Saturday. In Town's case, this was confirmed by John Fenty at the last AGM.

The away team's £1,000 doesn't cut it either. Altrincham estimated that moving their game at Bromley to an early Saturday slot cost them £2,500. 

So the fans get short shrift and the clubs are out of pocket. Why are we signed up to a TV deal at all? Presumably BT Sport coverage makes it easier to entice sponsorship of the league. The current deal with Vanarama is said to be worth £700,000 a year to the clubs in the top three non-League tiers. Of this, Town and the other Conference Premier clubs get roughly £20,000 each. It's not a stretch to do a quick back-of-a-fag packet calculation and say that this doesn't cover the losses incurred by Town's three appearances on the telly so far this season.

The £20,000 is obviously important for the part-time clubs in the division. The irony is a lot of these teams rarely feature in live games, if at all. So they pocket the money without any expense to the club or inconvenience to their fans. Perhaps I am looking at this from a 'big club' perspective. Regardless, it seems John Fenty (Con) and the rest have signed up to a deal which is laudable only for the socialist principles that seem to be an inadvertent by-product.

The Conference has a chance to set itself from the Premier League and the truckloads of cash. To put fans first and take it from there. It doesn't appear to be doing so, instead just behaving like a poor relation. Under the thumb of the TV company but with the Vanaramarama trucks carrying little or no cash.

The fall-out from the Town game at Forest Green being moved to a Friday hasn't settled yet either. Hursty feels it's unfair to have two long trips in three days and has chief exectuive Ian Fleming negotiating with Aldershot to move the date of the 1 March game at their place. Watch this space, railcard holders...

The club released a delightful compilation of Podge's league goals yesterday on YouTube. Visit for the goals and stay for more entertainment (and a little bit of embarassment and irritation when the Irish national anthem gets mistaken for an IRA ballad) as Podge gives the numpty third Facebook comment a brief history lesson.

Finally, this weekend spare a thought for these half-and-half scarfers and the game in general. Like all decent people, they are left in the impossible quandary of who to root for in the Bastard Franchise Scum v Chelski FA Cup game. If you don't fancy tuning in, I'm going to be Periscoping a live representation of the game by filling barrels with vomit and diarrhoea and racing them down a hill into the local landfill. Cheerio!