Cod Almighty | Diary

Everything's coming up Roses

9 April 2018

Miss Guest Diary writes: Over the past year or so it has become increasingly irritating to be a Town fan living in Lincoln. As Town's fortunes have suffered, so those of the local team have prospered. I am heartily fed up of casual acquaintances who know I 'go to the football' telling me how pleased I must be at Lincoln's success. Grrrrrr.

As the date for the final of the Rogue Traders Cup has got nearer and the number of scarf and hat sellers in Lincoln high street has multiplied, it has become almost unbearable. While Town are in freefall, every shopkeeper in the city has discovered their inner Imp, with red and white window displays and messages of support. Now I suppose it will be another open-top bus tour to avoid.

But if I could, I would have made one of those bargains with the universe on Saturday morning. You know: if Town beat Chesterfield today, I won't mind if Lincoln win at Wembley tomorrow. Well, it has come to pass. So, if anyone asks me if I went to Wembley, or I accidentally catch sight of an open-top bus, I'll just smile sweetly and think of those three points gained. And, of course, I'll have a smug little voice inside which says: yeah, been there, done that and literally got the T-shirt 20 years ago.

My biggest disappointment of the weekend was that I couldn't be at Blundell Park on Saturday, having instead to attend an event rearranged due to the bad weather last month. I have only been able to enjoy the victory second-hand. Maybe that was the universe paying me back for chickening out of going to Coventry and missing the drubbing handed out to a team which Cod Almighty's trusty match reporter described as "lacking everything, everywhere".

Mr Butcher's one-word summing up of that Coventry game was "dead", and for Saturday's game it was "alive". It seems Michael Jolley has worked some kind of miracle in resuscitating the footballing corpse which Russell Slade left us with two months ago. Is there enough time left in the season to have it up on its feet, maybe even moving about enough to keep us in the Football League? Fingers crossed.

Despite having an interview style, which surely must have been coached into him, of ending every statement on a rising inflection so as to sound positive, Mr Jolley is counting no chickens. He told Matt Dean that he couldn't get too carried away and that there are still more points needed from the four games left in order to "do the job we set out to do".

Jolley also had a little dig at some fans' criticism of Rose and Hooper – good for him. I'll never understand what makes some people believe that slagging a player off on social media or shouting insults at them during a game will suddenly turn them into a world-class athlete with the skills of Maradona. Town are in the fourth division and have a set of players with limited skills which they apply as best they can. Cheering and getting behind them is far more likely to improve their performance than calling them donkeys.

I have to confess that my favourite player all season has been Mitch Rose. He shows the commitment and determination (if not the ball skills!) of Stacy 'Yard Dog' Coldicott and, like Coldicott, is underappreciated. But there's no taking away the fact that Mitch is currently Town's top scorer. That I missed his triumph on Saturday is a real source of regret, so I'm hoping that he can do something similar next weekend against Barnet. Fingers, and everything else, crossed.