Cod Almighty | Diary

It all kinda petered out into nothing

7 September 2020

Miss Guest Diary writes: Regular readers will know that I live near Lincoln, but I happened to be spending the weekend in Cleethorpes doing a bit of cat sitting at a house from which you can actually see Blundell Park from an upstairs window. Which made the current spectator ban doubly frustrating.

Having discovered that our regular pre-match cafe has survived the lockdown, of course we went there for lunch on Saturday. We also couldn't resist strolling down to Blundell Park, where we encountered a few others loitering around the ground. And then we went back to the house to follow the game on Twitter. Of course, we could have watched on iFollow, but I really hate watching Town live on TV.

There are two aspects to this aversion. Firstly, it's all about the tension. When I'm at a game I find it far easier to judge the run of play and how threatening an opposition move might be, or how promising a Town attack. On TV, every time Town's opponents go forward with the ball I fear they're going to score. The commentators don't help. Listening on the radio is even worse – every corner, every free kick, even the throw-ins sound like scoring opportunities, leaving me alternately relieved or disappointed.

The last time I 'watched' a live televised Town game was the play-off semi-final at Braintree. The tension was so unbearable I had to keep leaving the room. I spent most of the match hovering in the doorway between my sitting room and kitchen and didn't even see the winning goal go in.

My second reason for not wanting to watch a stream of the game is the reductive nature of televised football. Being forced to spend the entire time following the ball when, aside from the goalmouth action, much of the game can be very dull. The experience when you are in the ground is so much more than just the on-field action. When play gets dull you can catch up with friends, see what's happening in the crowd, concentrate on off-the-ball action, gaze at the seagulls overhead – in fact, soak up the whole atmosphere. Something that is completely absent when sat in front of your TV or laptop at home.

I don't feel in the least disappointed Town didn't win their League Cup game on Saturday. The next three rounds of the competition all take place during September, i.e. behind closed doors, making it effectively a 'ghost' competition for lower division clubs. It will put pressure on small squads and force clubs to incur the expense of staging games but without allowing fans to participate or provide extra revenue.

In his post-match interview with John Tondeur, Ian Holloway said he was very pleased with the team's performance and heaped praise on Danny Preston in particular. But with his complaints about having to play the game before the season started in a slot which should have been a pre-season friendly and his suggestion that five substitutions should be allowed, I didn't get the impression he was too disappointed either at exiting the competition. Holloway also said that playing another game this coming Tuesday is "madness". His promise to play a team of youngsters and calling the EFL Trophy game a "practice match" shows a healthy disregard for that competition, of which I heartily approve.

He then went on to get a little snippy with Mr Tondeur about the Anthony Limbrick situation, criticising him for having tweeted about events. I got the sense, though, that Holloway was actually cross about other things: Limbrick for not living locally or maybe the players for not taking a pay cut after all? It was a bit confusing. What did seem clear is that we are unlikely to see Limbrick at Blundell Park again, unless it is as the employee of another team.

To be honest, seeing anyone at all at Blundell Park is beginning to feel like a pipedream. But it was somehow comforting to be in the same postcode during the game, so we'll probably repeat the whole ritual fortnightly until we can get back into the Pontoon. UTMM