Cod Almighty | Diary

Spatial awareness, Jobling

28 November 2016

Miss Guest Diary writes: Crawley Town: memorable for being our opponents in the first non-League match played after relegation to the Conference in 2010. Crawley were also responsible for raising our hopes of a quick return to the Football League by losing to us after their keeper was sent off, and then for breaking our hearts by securing automatic promotion while we finished that season in 11th place.

While we languished in the Conference for another five years, Crawley secured back-to-back promotions before relegation back to the fourth division in 2015. And yet, and yet... it seems you can take a club out of the non-League but you may not be able to take the non-League out of the club.

Everything about Saturday's fixture felt like a throwback to last season: the leafy suburban walk from the station to the ground, the modest size of the stadium (with standing terraces at both ends), the modest price of the refreshments and the modest size of the crowd – a mere 2,315, of which Town fans made up about 25 per cent. A smaller crowd, in fact, than when we played there in 2010.

Oh, and being nicknamed the Red Devils. It is OK for a non-League team to appropriate Man United's nickname, but it seems a bit naff for a League team.

Unfortunately, the Crawley players were definitely League standard and, according to Marcus, fresher for having their midweek game postponed. A couple of times during his post-match interview he mentioned the fact that Town had played three games in just over a week and had two long trips. While this is true, it felt a bit like an excuse and I wonder whether tiredness really caused the errors which contributed to the goals conceded?

Having lived with a curmudgeonly pessimist for over 25 years, I am suspicious of too much positivity, so it was pleasing to hear the manager sound much less cheerful than of late. I was worried that we'd be served up with another dollop of that smiley optimism, which would be hard to stomach when you've travelled for four hours to witness a pretty lacklustre performance. Thankfully he was realistic about Town's shortcomings, without being too negative.

Unlike a few fellow fans on social media, I am willing to cut the manager some slack, bearing in mind that it is a step up for him and he is also working with an inherited squad. With no game next weekend due to our early exit from the FA Cup, Marcus has two weeks in which to work some magic before the Portsmouth game. Ooh, and apparently all is not well at that club, with two of their players being substituted at half-time following a dressing-room brawl. At least we don't get any of that sort of thing at Town.

Returning to Crawley for a moment, it was very generous of them to hold a minute's silence before the game – which was impeccably observed – in tribute to the legendary Paul Futcher. Town fans also marked his passing with applause in the fourth minute to reflect his shirt number.

I wanted to be able to add my own recollections of Futch, but he played during the period when I mostly went to away games and was still a bit more interested in the day out than the events on the field. Though I must have rated him, because I can recall having a 'Futchenstein' T-shirt. When I looked back in my scrapbooks to see if some remembered event would jump out at me – it didn't – I was surprised to see how short a time Futch was with Town.

He made his debut on 19 January 1991 and, as far as I could glean, made his last start on 3 September 1994. He was an unused sub for a few games after that, then he disappears completely from the player lists. He made 132 appearances in total – a lot less than many other long-forgotten Town players of the last 25 years, such as Paul Agnew or Kevin Jobling. But I guess it's not quantity that creates a legend but quality and Futch certainly had plenty of that. RIP.