Cod Almighty | Diary

I just can't take it if you walk away

4 March 2019

Trentside Diary writes: "We’re winning away, we’re winning away, how shit must you be, we’re winning away," the boisterous Us fans finished with on Saturday. They’d just lost three on the trot and we’d been doing OK. We started last week with unseasonal sunshine and optimism – not for the planet, which appears to be doomed by world leaders with only short-term self-interest on their horizon, but with the prospect of another month of Jolleyball and progress up the league. And then the cold winds blew up the Humber from the North Sea.

The omens were there. No Öhman at the back and the miserable git who sits behind me was back after missing a few games. Town struggled to find any spark. Embleton bumbled, Hess hesitated and the rest stumbled about. Passes went astray, there was no urgency and nothing seemed to click.

A year to the day since Mr Jolley was appointed and he didn’t get the result he deserved for all he has done – in transforming the team and for the relationship he has built between the team and the fans. We’re not the finished item, just a work in progress, but at full time I reflected on what we looked like on the pitch a year before.

Yes, this is a setback and setbacks are going to happen. But the team will pick itself up and look to the next match. It’s just such a pity so many had early buses to catch and had to leave ten minutes early. I never will understand the mass early walkout, however badly we’re playing, but at least the traffic to the A180 has thinned out a bit by the time the rest of us leave.

Well done to the Mariners Trust for agreeing last week to refurbish the memorial stones outside the Findus stand. It’s the right thing to do and will mean so much to many of those people who bought one.

And finally, in the rarefied world of top-division football where matches can only be played in a sealed environment like a 1970s supercomputer, Jürgen Klopp blamed the wind for his team not winning yesterday. He should try playing at Blundell Park! What is it about some managers who think we all believe them when they talk such drivel? If it was windy for you, it was windy for the other team. You were either better than them on the day, or you weren’t.

On Saturday Town weren’t better than the Us but we’re not blaming the weather. It was just one of those days. Let’s push on to Crawley. UTM!