Cod Almighty | Diary

The answer is blowing in the wind

15 February 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Well, an event did take place at Blundell Park on Saturday – I witnessed with my own eyes 22 men chasing a ball around for 90 minutes. But I'm not sure I would describe it as a football match. I think it was some kind of new existential torture devised by the team to see where we fans really stand.

Gowling and Toto were definitely engaged in a competition to see how much panic they could induce in the home crowd by hitting feeble passes to each other across the face of Town's penalty box. They added to the jeopardy by making risky back-passes to McKeown, and in this they were joined by the midfield two. It actually felt like there were more back-passes to McKeown in the first 45 minutes than you'd normally see in half a dozen games. Fortunately, McKeown dealt adequately with all of them – which is more than can be said for the Lincoln keeper on Saturday.

As an attacking threat, Pittman and Amond don't really work well together, and it wasn't till Bogle came on with 25 minutes to go that there seemed even the remotest possibility that Town might score.

In his post-match interview with John Tondeur, Hurst emphasised the difficulty of the conditions – and there was indeed a strong freezing wind swirling around the ground all afternoon – but that's nothing new. It's nearly always windy to some extent in Cleethorpes, so you'd expect our players to be able to cope better. And maybe try passing the ball along the ground a bit more instead of lumping it forward to our under-six-foot strikers when they're up against much taller defenders.

All in all, a game to forget.

Unfortunately, with it went the last hope of automatic promotion for this season. The realists gave up on that prospect weeks ago, even before the loss at Gateshead. We dreamers were still clinging on to a vestige of hope, but a 13-point deficit with only 15 games to go seems too big a mountain climb. Is Hursty a dreamer? When pressed by John Tondeur to say whether the gap is still bridgeable, he merely responded that "it's a big ask".

Before I listened to that interview I saw some griping on Twitter about Hurst making negative comments about the fans and thought: "Uh-oh, he's put his foot in it again." But I must admit I agree with him – we have been spoilt this season by seeing some great performances and loads of goals. Not since Liam Hearn's first season in 2011-12 have we had such a prolific striker or been treated to so many high-scoring victories; and in that season Town's highest league position was sixth. That Town are going to have to try once more for promotion through the play-offs is annoying, but nowhere near the worst thing that can happen to a football club.

The ground was fairly silent most of the time – just a short burst of singing at the start of the second half and the usual "Ma-a-a-riners" at corners. I put this down to the crowd being in a state of stunned dismay; that, and incredulity, were certainly my overriding feelings. Hurst wasn't wrong when he doubted the support of some fans – for what real supporter would leave a match with more than 15 minutes of play remaining? Yet on Saturday there was a steady trickle of people exiting the ground from the 74th minute onwards – missing what turned out to be Town's best period of play.

And what of Town's latest signing: Anthony Straker? His cameo appearance was too brief and the game itself too awful to form a solid opinion. All I can say is that he put in one really good corner without the need for the chorus on the back row of the Pontoon to shout: "Elevation!"

Disley received his 10th booking, meaning he will miss the next two games – Halifax away and Woking at home. That is not as disastrous as it would have been before the arrival of Nolan, and I am looking forward to seeing him and Clay play together. If that turns out to be a good partnership, Hurst will have a tough decision to make when the skipper has served his ban.

News today is that the manager is looking to bring in two more new players – a wide man and a striker – and as the Diary is published Town have confirmed the loan of Wigan winger Ryan Jennings until the end of the season. But if he is looking for anyone to replace Bogle or Arnold as first choice in either of those positions, then I hope his quest is in vain.