Cod Almighty | Diary
Steady steps
18 December 2017
Open Diary writes: So how are you doing? All set up for Christmas? Presents around the tree and the turkey ordered for the big day?
There has been precious little peace and goodwill to all over the past few weeks, since the fans' forum. Quite unbelievable really that you would invite a load of people round to have a heart-to-heart and manage to turn it into the biggest falling-out in recent years. And then it has been one clumsy faux pas after another, the club having fallen out with most of those there or who, like me, watched via the live streaming.
The thing with the streaming version is that you miss out on the passion and intensity in the room but you pick up on lots of little things that tell you a lot about who's on whose side and what people think about what's going on. It was quite unedifying to work out what was going on, and since then there has been one bust-up after another.
In spite of that, 1,500 of the faithful still travelled from the east on Saturday to adore the team they support. That's more the entire gate at Barnet v Morecambe that afternoon. OK – it's a bit further but we'll see how many take the trip to Luton this weekend. Why is this important? Well, because it shows how many people care. In spite of all the pain, abuse and bad behaviour inflicted by those allegedly in charge, people are still bothered enough to turn out in this year's replica kit, travel to wherever, pay 20 quid for a match ticket, and come back and do it again the next week. In any conventional business you'd expect this to be seen as customer loyalty. So why abuse the customers?
On the pitch things have been a lot better. Three wins and an away draw against the joint leaders is a big improvement on where were a couple of months ago. We seem to have settled on a team that suits the manager and there have been departures on loan which might lead to more permanent changes when the transfer window opens again. With departures comes the possibility of arrivals – so who knows?
Anyway – it's time to write your letter to Santa for next Monday. In spite of everything I'm still going to be asking for one of the new bobble hats with the red stripe and the away retro kits mug from the club shop. That's another twenty-odd quid to fill the club's coffers. And I'm making the trip to Luton on Saturday, of course.
After Christmas comes new year and it's time for resolutions. Let's resolve to still support the side we love and let's hope that those running the place resolve to start valuing loyal customers.