Cod Almighty | Diary

Deja bloody vu

26 November 2019

There is a dog that isn't barking. Middle-Aged Diary might be looking in the wrong places. I've been in Madeira and can confirm that the giant statuette - the same attention to detail as a plastic toy, but blown up to twice human size - depicting Cristiano Ronaldo with a hard-on is yet another symbol of everything that is wrong with football today. But I have been dipping into social media and there seems to be singularly little speculation about who will replace Michael Jolley.

This isn't apathy. The 597 Town fans who travelled to Northampton confirm we still care about the club, but it will be interesting to see the attendance tonight: both it's number and its mood. It may be a kind of sullen despair has set in, a realisation that whoever the board appoints, John Fenty will remain in charge. With thanks to Daubney Diary for the line: we'll either get a bad manager and we'll be screwed or we'll get a good manager who Fenty drives round the bend, and we'll be screwed.

Meantime, Anthony Limbrick remains responsible for team selection for the visit of Cheltenham. The Robins are a team we particularly like to beat so perhaps a good start and taking our chances could change the mood. If it stops the offical site harping back to "the Bridge" it will be especially welcome.

Luke Hendrie is still ruled out, but he may be able to call on Ludvig Öhman. Max Wright could also be involved, and you could make a case for saying our season's collapse began at 3.27pm on Saturday 5 October when the only authentic winger in our squad was forced off against Mansfield.

If only the men were enjoying a fraction of the success being enjoyed by Grimsby Town Women. Having vanquished Louth Old Boys Ladies 8-0 in the Lincolnshire County Cup, they will play their quarter final at Grantham Town on 19 January. In the league they remain unbeaten after a 6-0 win over HBW United Ladies at the weekend.

Perhaps Dale Houlston could take charge of the men's as well as the women's team. That's the kind of job combination that seems to appeal to our major shareholder.