Cod Almighty | Diary

Wonderings of a wanderer

4 October 2018

Open Diary writes: There are times when I wonder how I've managed to end up where I find myself following Town's fortunes. Over time it has got easier.

I confess that I sometimes followed away matches on teletext. Many of you won't remember those days, when you turned the TV on and you could get three or four pages of live scores in your division and it was an interminable wait until the one page with Grimsby Town on it came around. I remember one time when we were 1-0 down to some side, then Neil Woods scored as the pages refreshed, and the next time round he had scored again, and we were 2-1 up.

Nowadays, it has become much easier through the wonders of Twitter and the BBC website. I remember following the second leg of the play-off semi-final on a Eurostar trip back from Brussels. As we entered the tunnel it was 0-0 and we were on the way out. By the time we emerged near Folkestone we had equalised, and it was all to play for; then another tunnel under the North Downs somewhere and we were 2-0 up. Arriving at St Pancras, we were in the final.

So, this week I found myself in Viareggio, Italy where the hotel offered a Tuesday night walking tour of the art deco sights of the city. These days, of course, all you need is a mobile phone and you can combine some architectural insights without missing out on the run-up to the game.

Given recent performances, any latest score is going to cause tension. If we score first, are we going to be able to hang on to a lead? If we go behind, what chance is there that we might come back? If the scores are level, then surely it’s only a matter of time before the inevitable happens?

The trouble is that if you end up following in the Twittersphere you get an entirely one-sided view of the game. Try reconciling the official GTFC Twitter account with the BBC's live text and Tony's eventual match report and you wonder if they’re all talking about the same match. Talk about "fake news" and you wonder where the truth lies in all the accounts.

Once all the optimism carried over from last season's late recovery evaporated, we got into one of those confidence-sapping runs of defeats which lead to all the inevitable calls for change. Tuesday night's win brought that to a welcome end, but it doesn't resolve some of the underlying problems of lack of fitness, inability to score and uncertain formations. Why, after all that has gone before, would you change that much in a winning team?

And isn't this why Town end up so often wondering how they have ended up in the situation they find themselves in over recent years? For all the emphasis on keeping our shape (a phrase which reappeared after Carlisle), there was too much chopping and changing and tinkering with a successful formation. So Port Vale on Saturday will be a test of consistency and a sense of purpose. I shall still be in Italy and will be waiting for the teamsheet to be announced to the world of Twitter to see how that plays out.

Ever the optimist, I’m hoping that we've turned a corner for the season.