Cod Almighty | Diary
Hooked on a feeling
5 September 2016
Miss Guest Diary writes: After the match on Saturday, anyone who follows Cod Almighty on Twitter will have seen a tweet suggesting a case of déjà vu and containing a link to a match report from 18 months ago. The match in question was the one at Chester in March 2015, where Town also went from being 2-0 up to scraping a 2-2 draw.
I'll leave you to read the match report to decide whether Town's apparent onfield collapse last Saturday had similar causes; all I can say is that from the stands the experience was not comparable. Yes, the pattern of scoring was the same but, as someone who was at both matches, the feelings were very different. Sitting in Chester's car park in stunned silence waiting for the traffic to clear, the draw felt like a loss – and a sign that Town would never win promotion with Hurst in charge.
By contrast, on Saturday I walked away from Meadow Lane feeling relatively light-hearted. Yes, we could have taken all three points but, with Town's current defensive frailty, the longer the game went on the more likely it seemed that Notts County might win. The huge crowd of very vocal Town support – actually the largest away following in the League this week – seemed quick to acknowledge and accept this. After an initial deflation when County's second goal went in, the singing resumed and the players were cheered and clapped from the field.
This was one of those occasions when settling for a draw felt OK; even quite good, given that it secured Town's first away point of the season. Maybe it's because there is no longer that desperate need to gain every point possible to secure automatic promotion back to the League and avoid the dreaded play-offs. Or maybe we're just taking a breather after six years of feeling that Town ought to be in the League, ought to be beating "the likes of" Woking or Tamworth; that supporting a non-League club who can take 1,000 fans to Chester, we really shouldn't have to go home with less than three points.
Oddly, the prevailing mood at away games this season seems for many fans to be less about the result and much more about the overall experience of the day – being part of a vast crowd of exuberant Mariners fans who are willing to travel hundreds of miles at no small expense to sing and shout and clap and wave inflatable fish around in support of the team.
Of course, we all want to see Town win and I am not suggesting that Town should be resting on their laurels after gaining promotion. But it feels, to me at any rate, that the fans are currently cutting the team some slack. There is recognition that Town achieved something pretty special last season and that a new set of players in a new division might take a while to settle in. Hurst is trying his best to shore up the defence and, for the moment at least, we trust him.
It makes me wonder whether the toxic atmosphere which developed so quickly at Halifax in February, when Town went 3-0 down inside half an hour, could ever happen this season. Of course, we might get the opportunity to find out next week when Town play at Luton – the only team in the fourth division to have scored more league goals than us.
Other observations from Saturday: that the absence of smoke bombs doesn't mean there aren't still idiots following Town. When Town's first goal went in, five men who are surely all old enough to know better, embarrassed the rest of us by running on the pitch. On a lighter note: the Pádraig Amond chant from last year has got new words but they were completely inaudible to me, and there is a new chant for Omar Bogle which is apparently based on a Blur song with which I am not familiar. I hope it doesn't catch on, as it's a bit of a dirge, and nowhere near as much fun as the livelier "Omar, Omar" chant.
During lulls in the game, I looked around and decided I was quite taken with how Notts County's ground has been developed. It has four separate stands, three of which are large with a good rake and built close to the pitch, allowing a decent view while creating a great atmosphere. Add to them a family stand with hospitality boxes behind one goal and the ground has a capacity of over 20,000. I did hear the toilet facilities are not up to scratch, but that's just plumbing. Is it really beyond the bounds of possibility that something similar could be achieved at Blundell Park if the desire to do so existed?
One of the songs which featured heavily on Saturday, and currently my favourite, is the one which starts "At Blundell Park, since I was young" (though it my case it should be since I was bordering on middle age). How is that going to go if Town get a new ground? Another good reason to stay put. Just saying...