Cod Almighty | Diary
1.21 gigawatts?!
7 March 2017
Wicklow Diary writes: "We have only had back-to-back wins twice all season," muses Danny Collins to the Telegraph this morning. I suppose it's a sign of a potentially good team seeking a bit of consistency. Perhaps a new manager, with new systems and new players yet to bed in. Of course, it's also a hallmark of crap teams that are just crap, but we won't dwell on that.
Collins was one of several Town players who accompanied Marcus Bignot on a visit to what's left of the docks early this morning. A more mardy diarist might write it off as a cheap PR stunt but damn it, I like it. It worked for McMenemy and it suggests that Marcus might have read at least one chapter of the copy of We Are Town that we sent to him. There is also the possibility that the event was just Marcus's version of the Crewe's manager's motivational milkman speech.
Looking at the table, one is reminded at just how absoluely rubbish the division is. Mansfield and Stevenage are in the play-off positions? Come off it. Danny C suggests that a nice run of results could put us in the mix. He's correct, of course, but we're leaving it late. If we are to magically blast out of the division, it will have the last-minute chaos of Doc Brown zip-lining from the clock tower and frantically plugging shit in as Marty hits 88mph.
Realistically, those finishing sixth and seventh are going to be semi-final fodder for Pompey, Carlisle or Luton. (I know we've done alright against them, just stop it; we're not going up. I'd take finishing above Cheltenham and Hartlepool at this stage.) So if Marcus can build a squad for 2017-18, what's to stop us taking a look to the future too?
What are we likely to face? The benefit of mucking about and playing our current undecipherable system means that the timeframe for the return to 4-4-2 has moved forward from the tenth league game to pre-season. Who will we be using it to thrash though?
Outgoings first. Donny and Plymouth appear to be going up. So too two of Pompey, Carlisle and Luton. At the bottom, Newport seem sunk. They were thrashed at home by Leyton Orient at the weekend in an old-fashioned shit or chocolate six-pointer. The fact that they're only just back in the league sends a shiver down the spine. We simply cannot let that happen to us. On the plus side, Lenny will be out of contract and looking to stay in the division. Sign him up, Marcus – for the goals, the smile, and the trolling of the pathetic Town fans who toasted his season-ending injury last August.
The Os have two battles but if they can put aside their off-field problems they have a chance. They can take hope that Yeovil are within touching distance with an unhealthy 16-game winless streak on the go. The bad news for Yeovil is that they don't play us and our patent pending Bignot Streak-Buster formation for another nine games.
Who will replace the two that fall? Lincoln are looking good for the Conference title. In addition to their historic FA Cup run, they're still in the FA Trophy. This will put a squeeze on the fixture list but it's hard to look beyond the fabulous Cowley boys bringing them up. Excellent – two fun derbies to look forward to. Be honest, would you prefer two games with Yeovil or two with Lincoln? And as this from the latest When Saturday Comes explains (shared by Trev Hewson on Twitter), they want to be playing us too.
Tranmere and FGR are the main threat to our boxing day fun (and whichever random September date Lincoln fancy inviting us to Sincil Bank). The second shiver of this diary is from looking at that Conference table. What the hell are we doing? Let's quickly move on to the carefree pastures of the third division drop zone.
Coventry are surely goosed. Thirteen points from safety with twelve games left, they almost need a run a ball. With an eye on next season when they’ll need a promotion, they sacked Russ 'No Need to Work the Notice' Slade at the weekend and replaced him with Mark Robins. Sad to see a club like Coven… ah, sod it. I'm saving my sad for us. By the way, Marcus Bignot may not have won me over yet but you have my permission to laugh longly at anyone who says they'd take Slade over Bignot right now.
In other ex-Mariner manager news, Hursty has revived Shrewsbury. They're not completely safe but six wins in ten have hoisted them to 16th. To show he's lost none of the old magic, one of the wins was at Glanford Park. It was Scunny's first loss there in 27 games and helped send the Iron into the winless spiral of despair that you can hear about on Radio Humberside each evening. Toto's doing fine too, by the way. Since his debut red card was rescinded he's settled in and even found time to bag a last-minute winner.
Other teams in the wrong mix are old chums Swindon, Oldham, Port Vale and, delightfully, Chesterfield. Mention of which brings us nicely back to the present. The reserves visit there today with another strong looking squad. It's a 1pm kick off, so I'd better get this diary out or the game will be over. UTM.