Cod Almighty | Diary

Dog days

28 December 2017

What can Middle-Aged Diary tell you that you do not know better than me already? The match against Mansfield lived up to its pantomime potential, until it ended in an unsatisfactory draw. It was marked by the debut of Ben Killip who took his place between the sticks when James McKeown suffered a groin injury.

On Saturday we entertain Accrington Stanley in what seems to have become our traditional holiday derby. After a budget-defying start to the season, Stanley are showing signs of fatigue; they have lost four games on the trot.

Town, in 13th, look distinctly mid-table. It is the ebb-days of the year, the trees bare, the light sullen. We could do with stirring. We have done nothing particularly wrong lately (on the pitch), but we would all feel better if, as we did at Accrington, at Cheltenham and against Swindon, we out of the blue did something spectacularly right.

The analogy that comes to mind is when Neil Woods' charges followed up scoring seven against Mansfield with six at Histon in 2011. He was sacked at the end of the following month. Perhaps Russell Slade had better be careful what we wish for.