Cod Almighty | Diary

Warning lights flashed on my map

25 April 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Saturday saw an unusual phenomenon at Blundell Park: a plethora, some might say surplus, of Cod Almighty diarists in the Pontoon. There was Original, Mardy, Middle-Aged, Devon, Wicklow, Deviant and me. Of the diarists from the last couple of years, only Retro was missing, sat stubbornly in the Main Stand with the dentists. Oh, and London Diary, who was possibly still recovering from football hosting duties in Manchester or maybe preparing for tomorrow's POTY gig.

What is the collective noun for a gathering of diarists? Not so long ago I would have plumped for 'a pessimism', but of late the diary roster has been joined by people of a more positive outlook. Deviant, ever the cynic, puts that down to them not actually seeing Town play very often. So after Town's less-than-inspiring performance against Chester, it will be interesting to see how cheery the diaries are this week. But getting back to the name, I think we should be called 'a bouillabaisse' – if you don't get it, look it up.

I was, once again, totally astounded to see people leave the ground when Chester scored their second goal on 61 minutes. Having either bought a season ticket or paid £18 for that day's game, why would you leave with a third of the match still to play? It's not like Town are incapable of coming back from 2-0 down: Aldershot two weeks ago. Or scoring quickly: Amond hat-trick in 13 minutes at Welling in January. OK, neither of those things happened on Saturday, but there were still over 10 minutes left to play when Dizzer scored and Town had a couple of good chances to equalise. Wouldn't that have been a kick in the teeth for those 61-minute deserters.

There were also people walking out in those last 10 minutes. Why, why, why? If you aren't sufficiently interested in waiting till the end of a match to see whether your team can score an equaliser, why bother to go at all? You could save yourself some money and do something useful like go to B&Q and buy some nails. What kind of message does it send to the players to see people leaving, effectively giving up on them?

Yes, it's painful to see your team lose, but no team can win every game, and 2-1 is hardly a hammering. As someone who has witnessed quite a few of Town's most awful humblings in the last 20 years – 6-1 at Bolton, 6-0 at Oldham, 5-0 at Crystal Palace and, of course, 8-1 at Hartlepool – I can honestly say there has never been a thought of quitting before the final whistle. Even at the Oldham game where, due to it being free entry to mark some anniversary or other, the visitors' end was half full of triumphant Oldham supporters.

At least Town have secured their place in the play-offs for a fourth season running. In which position they will finish and who they might face remain to be settled in the final league game next week. This hasn't deterred the club from selling tickets for the home leg already.

I have toyed with the idea of going to the Tranmere game in the hope of seeing us ruin their last chance of a play-off place with a resounding victory, but I fear that Hurst might put out a team which includes the likes of Straker and Henderson, and possibly even the elusive Marcus Marshall. What I am really hoping – please don't shoot me for saying this – is that Town lose on Saturday and finish in fifth place. I quite fancy a final weekend in the Cotswolds before we bid farewell to Forest Green. For ever.