Cod Almighty | Diary

"Get up off the floor Batchy, it's dirty enough down there already"

24 February 2016

Wicklow Diary writes: In keeping with original/regular Diary's definition of the "results business" yesterday, last night's fine win over Woking has been greeted with calm acceptance. It's like we've grasped half of Kipling's triumph and disaster line.

If you've ever been in the tunnel at Blundell Park, you will have noticed the framed motivational phrases adorning the walls outside the home dressing room. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. The achievements of a team are the results of the combined effort of each individual. And then Beware of flying chicken sandwiches/Attenzione di volare panini di pollo. Whatever effect this has on the players, do we need to pin a few posters of Kipling's 'If—' around the ground too, aimed at inspiring the fans?

One man who has taken the sentiment on board is Shaun Pearson. What a guy. As people who have never been and never will be in a trench often say, he's the man you'd want next to you in a trench. Not a grumble during a stint of bench-warming that would destroy lesser men. If he'd been on the terrace at Halifax, would he have been undermining the team with shitty chants or leaving at half time? Or would he have somehow swallowed the bitter pill and sung even louder to help the team out of a three-goal hole?

Hitting the undo button on some of the weekend's events is going to be difficult if not impossible. Hursty bought us a bunch of the finest flowers the petrol station forecourt has to offer and a tin of Roses. He did his bit by clarifying the 'spoilt' comment and forgiving the chants at Halifax. We responded with our lowest attendance of the season.

So does this mean we didn't deserve a win last night? One of the lines trotted out after every Town failure over the past few seasons is that our great fans deserve better. We deserved better at Halifax because there were 1,700 of us there. Seeing as about 1,200 stayed at home last night, surely we deserved to get turned over?

But hang on. That wouldn't have been fair on the 2,800 who did go. They deserved a win for keeping the faith and choosing Podge over Messi. Where does that leave the Woking 10? They deserve some reward for making the effort of travelling from London on a school night. But hang on, there were only 10 of them – that's pathetic, they don't deserve anything.

You can see that the 'deserve' argument is nonsense and one that irritates the hell out of me. I used to laugh at Newcastle in the 1990s when the media clamoured for them to win the title for their tearful fans. Arguments at work would ensue. "They haven't won anything for years and look at their fans, they still turn out." So? That's what supporters do, whether there are ten thousand or ten.

Good or bad, large or small, at least at Town our support means something. Look at poor old Bristol Rovers being bought by a billionaire Jordanian family. Generations of their support diluted by the stroke of a pen. I almost laughed at the press release from Rovers. According to the fluff, one of the family has an interest in football. That might be useful – maybe they know where Bristol is too, but they didn't say. What a sad joke.

The coming Trophy weekend is not a bad thing – it will give us more time to reset expectations and dust off the double Wembley plan. One thing we can't do is wallow in our past play-off losses. See the slumped shoulders of an England penalty taker before a tournament shoot-out; what you think, you become. It looks like Town fans are going to get every chance to re-establish our worth as the twelfth man too. The play-offs are going to be spicy. Annoyingly, Wrexham and Tranmere are now sniffing around, despite being rubbish for most of the season.

Tranmere's emergence as a play-off contender is particularly peeving. There are two reasons for this. With obvious disrespect to FGR and Eastleigh and Dover, they are a proper League football club. Meeting them or Wrexham in the play-offs would be a bit too Bristol Rovery for my liking.

Secondly, if play-offs or the title are riding on the outcome of our visit to Prenton Park on the last day, the International Space Station could be the place to be. Get Tim Peake to have the space beds made. Depending on what's at stake, the result could make Burton 2010 look like a parish picnic. But if we are all more Shaun Pearson and less Richard Brodie between now and then, I think we'll be alright.