Cod Almighty | Diary

Who's your superman?

18 January 2018

Wicklow Diary writes: With Town's form not floating any boats, I find footballing pleasure wherever I can. Flicking on the TV last night to catch Chelsea conceding a 94th minute equaliser in the FA Cup was lovely. Their whingeing players getting booked and red carded for diving also hit the spot. Of course, the bad guys always win and they ultimately triumphed on penalties. Gah. Scunny, Lincoln, Hull? No, I have a distaste for Chelsea. "We've spent billions of our shady owner's money but the ref is being not nice to us. Why do we have to play so many matches. The ball is the wrong colour". That attitude could be attributed to many clubs but to me Chelski are the original and the worst.

I don't know if the VAR (video referee) thingy had anything to do with it but the ref on the pitch channeled the merciless prototype in Robocop that went round machine-gunning people for parking tickets. Zero tolerance for players larking about. More of this type of thing, please. Somebody needs to get the message to our ref for Saturday's game at Colchester, Craig Hicks. He's the ninny we had for the recent visit to Notts County. County figured out early in that game that falling over earned a free and spent most of the afternoon doing just that. Our lads were either too corinthian of spirit or too thick to follow suit. I can't decide if it's more frustrating or not when an idiot ref is giving soft fouls and Town don't join in. 

As you've probably guessed by now, there's not much midweek diary fodder. Russ has been saying things at Cheapside but I'm sure you've seen all that elsewhere. Don't blame him for continuing to look up at the play-offs; we're teetering precariously, ten points from the action at both top and bottom. I'm happier that he's still taking the Charlie Croker outlook and not accepting we're in a battle with the drop.

Akwasi Asante is back from his Solihull loan but Reece Hall-Johnson has set up camp in Chester till the end of the season. One of last season's loaners, Brandon Comley, has been on loan at Colchester and yesterday the move was made permanent. He'll need to be watched on Saturday, with the right midfield partner he was quite useful for us. 

The club have announced what looks like a fun sixes event for Blundell Park in May in aid of the YDA. Dave Roberts is the chair of the new association and we've an article from Dave coming soon outlining their aims. It's great to have Dave back involved with GTFC in an official capacity. Boardroom and general PR nuttiness fell to all time low during his term as a director from 2013 to 2016.

What else? There's an ace new Tommy of the Town strip. Where does Rich get these ideas from?

I know it's not strictly football but the following could also be useful this afternoon, particulaily to exiles. I've been averaging ten games a season since the kids learnt to change their own nappies. My feelings toward the club at the moment mean that stat will take a nasty hit this season and I was planning on giving GY a miss until further notice. Then I read Pete Green's beautiful account of a recent Meggies ramble. Now that's much more fun than laughing at Chelsea. Go for the ramble and then click on Pete's account of a visit to the Barge in 2010. Your next click will probably to check the train or flights. UTM.