Cod Almighty | Diary

Goal shy

2 November 2018

Our four-game unbeaten run came to an end, rather predictably, at Crewe last Saturday – but as anyone inducted into the football bullshit cliché fraternity will insist, we go again. I don't know why people say that. It's not like we have any other choice than to go again since the trip to Cambridge is going to happen, whether we like it or not.

Is it a good time to visit the Abbey Stadium? Well, it's always difficult to tell with us. We can play Lincoln off the park, go toe-to-toe with high-flying Exeter and more than match those franchise bastards for at least half a game. But we can also go to pieces at home to Morecambe and look like the worst side in the world against mid-table Bury.

One of the key features of this season is our appalling home form, but it's a record that Cambridge can match. In fact, they've lost five of their eight home games this season, and conceded in all but one of them, so this clearly presents a great opportunity. If only we were any good going forward.

We’ve scored 10 goals in 15 league games this season. Our defence hasn't always been brilliant but, clearly, our problem is in attack – a bit like it was last season, when we went on that appalling winless run.

In fact, if you bolt this season's 15 league games onto the back of the final 25 games of last season, you get a return of just 27 goals. That’s 0.675 goals a game. Sadly, it only shows that the problems from last season have not been solved and, barring a sudden change in formation, tactics or personal form, it's tough to see how we'll emerge from this attacking malaise.

It's going to be a tough nut to crack because it's been given so much time to manifest itself into the fibre of our club. We've been averaging less than a goal a game for the best part of two seasons now, if your West Yorkshire Diary’s calculations are anything to go by, so that's a pretty rotten return.

At least now we have a defence that may be able to protect a goal, when we can score one. Sneak enough 1-0 wins and it'll keep us ticking over, but it's simply not sustainable long term. I have no doubt that Michael Jolley and his staff are working hard with the players to resolve this long-standing issue, and in Wes Thomas we look like we have a genuine striker who can score goals. I believe the tide will turn and tomorrow's match against an out-of-sorts team is the perfect opportunity to lay down a marker for the rest of the season.

Win against Cambridge and I think we can look forward to a comfortable mid-table sort of season. Lose, and I think we'll be in for a rough old ride again. We need a strong performance across 90 minutes because a first half aggregate score of 7-3 and a second half aggregate score of 3-17 tells you everything you need to know about our season to date.

In other news, the club reiterates its stance on pyrotechnics with a deeply unsexy press release written by the EFL, which is committed to taking "strong and decisive action" against the brain-dead morons who try to smuggle shit like that into grounds.

Season ticket holders can get 20 per cent off all purchases in the club shop this weekend when they present their season ticket book. That's not a bad deal – and it's come at a good time, too, as entering the month of November naturally demands us to start thinking about Christmas. There's something nice about football this time of the year when Saturday afternoon matches finish under floodlights. And the cold, crisp air is only really noticeable during your walk home (or to the car) following a defeat. A win warms the heart on the coldest of days. Let's hope that's the case tomorrow.

UTM!