Cod Almighty | Diary

Gravity is stern

15 July 2019

Trentside Diary writes: Not football but an exciting weekend of sport. I’m not sure I breathed for the last hour of the cricket World Cup final. The tension, excitement, despair, sheer passion. It’s not happening, it’s not happening, we’ve done it, we’ve done it. How on Earth did we win that? Somewhat like watching Town over the years. The tension, excitement, frustration, sheer passion. Topped off by a golden goal and a play-off final win over the years. Competitive sport: there really is nothing like it.

In local news, Mr Jolley tells us he hasn’t yet finished in the transfer market this summer. With James Hanson, Matt Green, Moses Ogbu and Elliott Hewitt having moved to Blundell Park, he’s still in the market for further additions but is making no suggestion as to which positions they might play. Interesting. Analysis shows that James Hanson made the highest number of aerial challenges per 90 minutes played and the highest percentage won in the third division last season. A couple of decent attacking players and we could be dominant.

In any event, we play a fair bit of head tennis in the lower leagues and so Hanson will be a useful addition. I’m hopeful that for once we won’t be frustrated by our lack of challenge.

I don’t believe that your pre-season gives you an indication of how your season’s going to go. Even if we were playing top-class opposition, nobody is going to push themselves too much in a friendly. It gives the team chance to get to know each other and the manager to see how the team is fitting together, but that’s all.

That said, I seem to remember a certain Podge Amond scoring a few in the 2015 friendlies and he went on to bag a few that season. Last season we lacked a consistent scorer so maybe one of the new signings will fill that void. Even better would be to see a couple of them regularly on the scoresheet. Last time we had two forwards who raised the pulse at the same time was probably Michael Reddy and Gary Jones. Very different players but both offering goals that could change a match. Reddy getting injured that season was probably the flutter of wings that led to six seasons in non-League. I think it’s time for some positive momentum. UTM!