Cod Almighty | Diary

Omar comin'...

29 August 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Something that continually surprises me is the ability of football to surprise me. Having lost four games in a row, with the previous week's defeat feeling particularly undeserved, I entered the ground on Saturday with a marked lack of enthusiasm. Two hours later, I was leaping around like an idiot as Town's fifth goal went in – into the net and also into my all-time top ten of favourite moments at Blundell Park.

It's moments like that that keep us coming back for more. That keep us going through the relegations and disappointments, the sackings and the refusal of our favourite players to sign new contracts (yes, I am talking about you Carl Magnay). Now I find myself with another reason to keep going: I find that I have grown fond of Town's manager.

Yes, Hurst can be exasperating with his tactical shenanigans and his periodic strays away from the tried and trusted 4-4-2 formation. But the players do seem to respect him and he also seems to have relaxed a bit more into his role. The tendency to snip and snipe when things don't go Town's way has lessened and his exchanges with John Tondeur after the game have taken on an almost chummy quality.

Something else I like about him: he's never going to get carried away. A manager who can sit with a straight face after a 5-2 win and say that the performance the previous week after a 2-1 loss was better is someone who is going to keep working and keep his players working to succeed. If you can get your hands on a copy of the Football League Paper, there's a nice little article about Hurst in there which says pretty much the same thing.

With Saturday's performance being pretty much everything we could ask for, it felt safe to visit Twitter over the weekend – something I avoid after a defeat – only to find that someone's started a rumour that Omar's being targeted for a move to Ipswich and someone else is claiming that Cod Almighty used to be funny. And Town seem to be playing a reserve fixture at Walsall tomorrow.

Yes, apparently the FA has decreed that the games in the Rogue Traders Trophy are classed as reserve team fixtures. But woe betide any club which dares to field reserves in its side as they could face a fine of up to £5,000. You couldn't make it up. Oh wait, someone did.

At least now that we're five games into the season we can look at where Town are in the league table: nestling comfortably in 12th place. Can we stop the season now, please?