Cod Almighty | Diary

Unhappy the team that needs heroes, but we know we are unhappy

29 March 2018

Middle-Aged Diary is going to set you some homework today. I'd like to have set it for today's Town players. There is evidence Craig Disley and Martin Gritton might have browsed the odd diary, and Chris Grocock wrote in many years after the event to confess to flashbacks that his legs were an inch too short to prevent the 1987-88 relegation. Apart from that though, players do not generally come to Cod Almighty. So you will have to do.

To set the scene, it's 2001. Town have won just four times since the end of October. Relegation is beginning to look inevitable. Then Danny Coyne and Paul Groves deliver a win at fellow-relegation candidates Queens Park Rangers. We touched on that game after James McKeown's heroics against Port Vale. A couple of games later, another relegation rival - Tranmere - visit Blundell Park.

So your homework is to go away and read Tony Butcher's match report from that game. See you again in a few minutes.

I did not see the Tranmere game but I was there for the next, at home to Watford. Once again, we came from behind to win. Once again the most unlikely players - our winning goal was bundled in by Stacy Coldicott after an absent-minded run and bumbling cross from Tony Gallimore - emerged as heroes. Once again, the chemistry between players and fans was producing some kind of static charge, the product of a shared will, a magnetic, compelling force. Defeat became impossible. Relegation we avoided.

Steve Livingstone, Coldicott and Gallimore weren't always heroes. In fact they were often not too far from the uncoveted role of Scapegoat-in-Chief. Luke Cornwall was a loan player a few degrees more effective than Mike Jeffrey and Daryl Clare had become; he was fondly remembered for years after, based on a Town career of a few weeks. They became heroes because when the crunch games came, they rose to the occasion. They may have been part of a squad that got into trouble, but we forgave all after they had delivered in relegation six-pointers.

Russell Slade has stripped us of established character. But tomorrow, and on Monday, and again the following Saturday, the chance is there for a Town player to make a lasting name for himself. There are some things about this season, the board should note, that we will never forgive. But for the squad, there is the chance of redemption. Any player who takes each game by the scruff of its neck, who provides commitment and leadership and drive, who performs now as though they need it just as much as we do: they could become a hero, not for one day but for years to come.