Cod Almighty | Diary

Gaining momentum when we are halfway up the hill

10 April 2017

Open Diary writes: What a brilliant weekend we've just had. The sun came out, your diarist spent a sun-soaked Sunday on a beach on the east coast – sadly in Essex rather than north Lincolnshire – and Town followed the dismal display against Doncaster with a brilliant battering of Blackpool. We're so good at scoring three away from home when the mood takes us.

For good measure Saturday also saw Brightlingsea Regent, the local side in these parts, win the Isthmian League North with three games to go. I'd forgotten how good it is to be at a championship-winning post-match celebration. All we need now is for Cleethorpes Town to achieve something outstanding against South Shields on 21 May. If you are going to Wembley, incidentally, be careful about chanting because South Shields seem to have adopted the nickname of "the Mariners": could be confusing at corners.

Listening to Marcus's interview after Saturday's game, he said a lot about momentum, and how it would be good to see a decent finish to the season. Sounds tempting. Wouldn't it be nice to put one over Cheltenham on Easter Monday? Then we've got one of those tasty London trips to Barnet at the end of the month and finally we've got Plymouth Argyle on the last day of the season. By then Argyle will probably be assured of being in the third flight next year. But no doubt they won't have forgotten another of our three-goal away displays before Christmas.

Part of the momentum for next season will also involve retaining the strongest part of the current squad. While some players are contracted into next season, many aren't, most notably in the defence. So speculation is going around regarding the two Dannys, Collins, who has been talking to the BBC, and Andrew, who is being coy on his future plans.

They're not the only ones out of contract, of course. And people play their cards in different ways. Some put them on the table at the start and others keep them close to their chest. Anyway, it provides the chance to observe these ritual dances where people see the offers that might be on the table and others wait to see which other players might be available on terms we can afford.

So far, though, Marcus seems to have a good sense of who to bring in. Sam Jones, who was his number one target, seems to have that very useful habit of being in the right place in the right time and getting on the scoresheet. Others have their moments but have some way to go before they convince us that it's not a case of flattering to deceive. Maybe the next few weeks are a bit of an opportunity for them.

It's also starting to become clearer what opposition we'll be seeing next year. I'm sorry to see that Leyton Orient look down and out, and surely Lincoln will replace them to give us a local derby match. Since Coventry and Chesterfield look likely to be coming down – which proves that a new stadium guarantees nothing in terms of on-field success – we'll be playing at two more first-time venues, instead of Doncaster and Plymouth. But maybe not Shrewsbury, and maybe not Forest Green if Tranmere keep their current run going.

You see? This is what mid-table safety reduces us to. Every game is important but, really, they don't matter because we know we're like the grand old Duke of York when he was only halfway up the hill. We're in for a couple of months of endless discussion and pointless speculation until pre-season starts for real.