Cod Almighty | Diary

Hard to be positive

25 September 2020

Middle-Aged Diary writes: Thunderdiary wrote the diary below before the news was released that a Grimsby player has tested positive for Covid-19, and that tomorrow's scheduled game at Cheltenham has therefore been cancelled. The Town squad is now self-isolating. Leyton Orient have also had to postpone their match, after forfeiting a League Cup tie. It is difficult at the moment to imagine how a viable, fair, worthwhile 2020-21 Football League season can take place.

However, our immediate thoughts are with our players and their families. This is going to be a long winter for all of us, but for those who have Covid-19, or have been in contact with Covid-19, and who work in trades where there is no viable revenue for the immediate future, these are very anxious times.

Take care, and Up the Mariners.

The original diary

Cheltenham. Eurgh. I bloody can’t stand Cheltenham. Not the Town itself - my best mate lived there for a time and I had some great times ("Entertainer of the Night" - October 2004) in what is a very charming corner of the south-west.

But the football team. Nah. It's not the Cardiff calamity that defines my loathing, however turgid an experience that was. That play-off defeat was a true Sliding Doors moment. Had we won I don't think we'd have got near non-League but as it was, a fairly vibrant team was broken up and the rest is horrible history.

For Thunderdiary, it was the non-League encounters that rankled. Cheltenham only spent one season with us in the Conference and bullied us in both games as they romped to the title. The odious playing style, the rolling around claiming fouls, the incessant berating of the ref served them well as they amassed 101 points and yo-yoed back up.

There's the obvious deploring of the likes of Pell and Wright, but the truth was Gary Johnson knew what it took to win that league. And maybe that's it. Maybe my dislike is jealousy. Maybe I know that if it hadn't have been for a Braintree brain-fuck on Josh Gowling we might still be there, contemplating a seaon that probably won't start.

To compound my animosity, Cheltenham have evolved since their hiatus and will no doubt furrow at the top end of our division, playing a brand of football with the types of players we - at present - can only begrudgingly admire.

It will be a big ask to come away with something tomorrow, with a squad further depleted with injury and suspension. My guess is that Matty Pollock will recover to partner Waterfall in a defence that will cope well with a long throw-in but be susceptible to the fast counter-attack.

Elsewhere, Holloway looks set to bring back Danny Rose and resist the urge to play new signing Johnson in the Number 10 role, with Sean Scannell looking to feature. Certainly, Town need a threat up top - it seemed last week that we just couldn't kick the ball hard enough at times, as clear chances and good possession went begging.

The boss also needs to work some of his fabled motivational magic in the event Town go a goal down, as mentally that seems to knock us for six. The collective sigh of defeat once that second cruel penalty was awarded last week was palpable.

Holloway saw enough against Salford to be encouraged that the attacking play was decent in the first half, with the box flooded and chances spurned. As he said, football is a great game: "Playing chess on grass".

Let's hope tomorrow it's not checkmate to Cheltenham.