Cod Almighty | Diary
Noodle me this
24 September 2019
With a day and a bit left to go until some cup game or other, Town's opponents and the media appear to have noticed that we exist, with a flurry of coverage emerging today across the web. Some of it is about James Hanson being in the Bradford team that won 4-2 at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup in 2015. Most of it is concerned with which members of Chelsea's youth team and which of their injury returnees will get a run-out. There's a quite extensive factfile thing on Chelsea's official website, which denies the greatest moment of Phil Jevons' life by implying that our League Cup game at Liverpool in 2001 was drawn and says we only won on penalties. What more could you possibly want?
Town's team news will be mostly concerned with whether Harry Davis will make it after recovering or not recovering from that shoulder injury against Port Vale the other week. With Luke Waterfall cup-tied, Ludvig crocked, and Mattie Pollock just seventeen, but Elliott Hewitt and apparently Liam Gibson offering options, there'll be some, um, interesting selection decisions to make for the centre-half positions. I'll leave tomorrow's diarist to update you on those.
The other lot's team news will mostly depend on how far Frank Lampard's Chelsea's Frank Lampard (© The Fiver) decides to dip into his pool of double-barrelled-surnamed 18-year-olds who move like Olympic sprinters and probably play regularly for England but can't usually get anywhere near the first team at Chelsea's Frank Lampard's Chelsea, despite the Premier League now allowing 61 players to be named as matchday substitutes. A couple of years ago you'd expect them all to end up getting unceremoniously dumped on the released pile and signing for Reading, but these days the west London outfit are being forced to field their young players because of their transfer ban putting faith in their academy because they believe in building for the long term and giving youth a chance.
Didn't Neil Woodses's nephew play for Chelsea a few years ago? What happened to him?
Many people have pointed out that the 5,000-odd Town fans travelling tomorrow night will number more than the Mariners' average home attendance this season. So here's your regular reminder that the term 'plastic fans' doesn't mean people who support a lower-division team but pick and choose their games. It means people who 'support' Premier League teams which represent cities they have no connection to. Please stop getting that wrong. Thanks.
As someone who didn't go to the Macclesfield game on Saturday and can't be arsed to go to Chelsea either, your original/regular Diary is perfectly placed to comment. Clearly I'm in a minority, but I was really feeling the Crystal Palace trip last season in a way I haven't really felt this Chelsea thing. I dunno. Somehow a game against Chelsea isn't for me, in the same way those music TV channels that just play videos of rappers with posh cars banging on about how ace they are aren't for me. Enjoy it if you're off though, obvs.