Cod Almighty | Diary

Puppet on a String

26 February 2020

Miss Guest Diary writes: I have said before how much I love a Tuesday night game. Setting out from home late afternoon to avoid the traffic on the Lincoln bypass; meeting friends for fish and chips at the Oceans; then the stroll down the Grimsby Road towards the distant floodlights of Blundell Park.

Sometimes that's where the pleasure ends, but not last night. I felt we were in for a treat when I saw the size of the crowd: generally speaking, the smaller the crowd the better Town play. And then Town kicked off and scored in the first minute. When was the last time that happened?

OK it was only about 10 minutes later when Newport equalised, but these days that doesn't seem to matter. The crowd deflated at that point, but not the team – they just kept barrelling forward looking for another goal. There was some nice football too, some pretty passing and movement, triangles and all that. But what seemed most apparent to me – someone who doesn't really pay much attention to formations or tactics – was the determination to keep moving forward with the ball.

This approach does leave the defence sorely exposed at times but the theory seems to be that it's OK to concede goals as long as you end up scoring more than the opposition. I may be over-simplifying things here, and I am sure the manager wants his defenders to defend, but that's how it looks to me. And last night that certainly paid off. Three months ago Town couldn't buy a goal but last night we seemed to be scoring, literally, for fun. Four goals from four different players; one of them 'our own' Max Wright.

In an early interview, Ian Holloway commented that Town's back-to-back 1-0 victories were not the usual score line for his clubs. That he was more used to seeing his teams win, or lose, 4-2 (I might have misremembered the actual score, but you get my drift). Does last night's game mean that Town are now performing as 'his' team? Not quite.

In his post-match interview with John Tondeur, Holloway, alongside a lot of stuff about spring and punches being thrown, said: "It's absolutely, totally exciting. It's nowhere near as exciting as I want it to be, and it's probably exciting for the wrong reasons at times because we get in front and we wobble, but you've got to pay respects to the opposition too. Bits and pieces are coming. You've got to be patient – Rome wasn't built in a day."

If last night's performance against Newport was just bits and pieces, I can't wait to see the whole jigsaw when it's done.

I was pleased to hear Holloway say sorry to John Tondeur for things said at Saturday's press conference, even if he was at the same time denying that he had been rude because he was smiling when he said them. I think it just about qualified as an apology.

News just in! Fenty steps down! Or does he? The club have issued a statement to the effect that John Fenty is stepping back from day-to-day operations at the club, leaving Philip Day to chair meetings and speak on behalf of the club and Ian Holloway as director with responsibility for all football operations. The cynic in me says Mr Fenty has been forced into this because of his role at the council and will still be pulling the strings. The football fan in me says: so what, I have never cared who runs the club as long as the on field performances are good.

No doubt people can attempt to learn more at tonight’s fans forum in the Trust Bar at 7.30pm. UTMM