Cod Almighty | Diary

Getting carried far, far away

24 October 2018

Let's get carried away.

Three wins and a draw from four games, two against teams in the top five. No goals conceded. Those of you who were there will confirm or deny it, but Middle-Aged Diary gets the sense of a real team spirit being built. It started among the players and it is now transmitting itself into the stands. Everyone is beginning to buy in to what Michael Jolley is trying to achieve.

Following last night's game purely from alerts, I was elated that a goalless first half gave way to a lead in the second which we never relinquished. My worst fears were confounded, and I've no desire to let go of how good that feels. So let's get carried away.

Parallels are dangerous, and over the top. But also irresistible. I write for Cod Almighty and I'm in my fifties. Of course I am thinking back to the late 1980s and the arrival of Alan Buckley. It runs deeper than recovery from a sticky start.

Did you read the phrase "square pegs in round holes" during our six-match losing streak? Get hold of one of Dave Wherry's books and take a look at the line-ups from the autumn of 1988. Never mind Kevin Jobling: there's John Cockerill, signed as a central defender, who with Shaun Cunnington formed the most charismatic midfield partnership of my lifetime. There's John McDermott, being tried all across midfield before Buckley could find the right slot for him.

Look again at the 1988-89 line-ups. There are more than a few legends in there already, but there is also a good sprinkling of names you forgot long ago, if you ever knew them: who was that Williams who played in defence? Building a team that will last is, at first, a matter of trial and error. Not every experiment will come off. Not every signing will succeed.

Parallels are dangerous. It is true that James McKeown has developed the Steve Sherwood trait of being at his best when the occasion most demands it, but Mitch Rose and Harry Clifton are not yet Cunnington and Cockerill and may never become them. They may become something better, or just different.

Parallels are also instructive. My last sight of the 1988-89 team was a 5-0 thrashing by Orient. And a couple of months into the promotion-winning 1989-90 season, we were still at the wrong end of the league table. A club can be making steady progress that is obscured by the zig-zag of results. 

We have a young team for whom all things are possible: good things, and sometimes bad things. Keep your memories from last night – and from the end of last season – warm for when you may need them in adversity. Let's get carried away, and keep on being carried away even if we come a cropper at Crewe.