Cod Almighty | Diary

The way things are going, they're gonna crucify me

17 May 2016

First of all today let's take some time to read about and remember Jeffrey Smith – a Town fan who died after suffering a heart attack en route to the play-off final the other day. What an unthinkable thing to happen. But I'm glad Jeffrey's friends continued to the match after he was taken away to be treated. I can half imagine how torn they felt. At half time during Town's 7-0 win over Alfreton last season, I learned of the death of a friend. There's no way to respond that isn't hard. All of the CA team and, I'm sure, our readers will be thinking of Jeffrey's family and friends. What a fitting minute's silence it would be should the organisers hold one at this weekend's FA Trophy final.

Many other narratives are emerging as Town fans blink and stagger into the light after those epic couple of hours back on Sunday. We find that former GTFC right-back Carl Magnay attended the game. We learn of an impromptu post-match party among Town fans travelling home who stopped off at Peterborough services. We have to consider the possibility that Paul Hurst will leave for Notts County: a club in chaos with a transfer embargo but a less conspicuous shitlark contingent.

What? He was on the brink of becoming the first manager other than Alan Buckley to get GTFC promoted since George Kerr in 1980, and the shitlarks placed a banner on the town's link road to the national motorway network calling for him to be sacked? And then he actually had the temerity to get upset about it? And the bare-faced cheek to feel vindicated afterwards?

Well, what an outrage.

And it's not just that Forest Green goalie who was sitting on the floor all forlorn at the end of Sunday, you know. Racy romantic novelist Jilly Cooper is heartbroken, but like all great literary figures I'm sure she'll be able to turn this suffering to art. We look forward to her forthcoming tome in which a dashing renewable energy magnate seeks solace from his troubled relationship with a local football club in the arms of a glamorous rugby union outfit, only to later beg forgiveness in a tearful finale involving Jon Parkin in a sumptuous velvet bodice.

Best of all, though, are the scenes that followed Nathan Arnold's injury-time third goal. We have observed that Hurst, in fact, has a heart that beats; we have cheered James McKeown's sprint down the entire length of the pitch to join in the celebrations. But we have not yet accorded sufficient praise to the response of the Town physio – not only a man who, during Arctic blizzards, continues to attend to his duties in nothing more than the skimpiest shorts-and-T-shirt combo, but a man who once went along on a trawler during the close season just for the craic.

So in this week of celebration let us celebrate Dave Moore, who greeted Arnold's promotion-clinching finale with no less stoical a response than an arms-folded chuckle and a little stroll. Paul Hurst, we love you. Dave Moore, we love you too.