Cod Almighty | Diary

Even minutes can feel like days

3 August 2016

One of the things that changes according to your club's League or non-League status is, naturally, the amount of media coverage it receives. Sometimes the relationship is perversely inversely proportional. During our six-year exile from the top 92, we become used to seeing Town on the telly a lot. Now that we're back in the League, we'll hardly ever be on at all. Warm thanks, here, to your original/regular Diary's mobile phone network for doing a free BT Sport deal three years too late.

But for the most part, we'll be looking forward to the resumption of two tried-and-trusted tropes. First, the patronising onslaught of piscatorial cliché (AHEM). Second, the time-poor churnalist needing an off-the-peg signifier of all that is squalid and unpleasant about the lower reaches of the Football League, and groping instinctively for "a cold Tuesday night" at "the likes of" Grimsby. Oh, hello, Luton on Sunday.

It's not all as formulaic as that, though. The Plymouth Herald gets it. We've got a modern twist going on down there. The other day I discovered from the Plymouth Herald that the Mariners have the fourth best kit in the fourth division, or something. Today we learn from the same source that our club's official Twitter account has the fourth smallest following in the fourth division. Or something. Bit of perspective, isn't it?

That do you? Ah, go on then – here's a heart-warming piece about Burnley fans voting to get rid of goal music, and a lovely Alan Buckley retrospective from the Black Country. Thirty years ago this week since Walsall sacked him. Doesn't it fly? Now, on your way – and I'll see you in the Rutland half one this Saturday.

And hey, now that we're back in the big time, and not being shown on TV, at least we'll not be shown on TV by a respected, prestigious broadcaster with high standards of professionalism, right?