Cod Almighty | Diary

If Sheffield United can win at Old Trafford, then Town can avoid relegation

28 January 2021

Trentside Diary writes: I'm a bit starved of footy at the moment. Yes, the pre-match fishcake in a bun, watery beverage in the ground and catch up with mates missing for the last 10 months, but also the tension of watching Town eek out a 0-0 draw against our equally lowly opposition. I committed to "not a penny more" at Christmas time and have since survived on the iFollow of rival clubs when I would have gone to the match as an away fan, otherwise what I could glean from Twitter and the BBC.

Reader, on Saturday I cracked. I couldn't pay money to our closest rivals but I didn't want to rely on sporadic updates from tippy-tappy pundits. I grudgingly paid my £8 to Fenty and received my pass for the game.

The football gods were not happy. I had broken my promise. I had handed my heard-earned pennies to Beelzebub. Let's be honest: we all eat crap when our hearts are hungry. I had sold my soul for him to cackle over more filthy lucre. I was shamed. The last laugh was on me; a family emergency meant the day went to shit and I didn't get to watch the game anyway.

Or did I laugh last? With what I have read, I was maybe better off not watching.

Still needing a football fix, I dipped into a few televised matches this week. Being a little over obsessed with football gods after Saturday, I couldn't watch Manchester United last night when I noticed they were losing; I was bound to jinx it. I saw about the last 30 seconds and the result has given me a bit of a boost. Who knows, could the Blades turn it round? I love to see a non-glamorous team getting one over on the top four/six clique and certainly none more than a certain red club from Manchester. Their sense of entitlement just irks me.

If Sheffield United could dig out a result when everyone had written them off, then Town can too. I still have faith that Paul Hurst can do it.

Many of us would settle for a takeover if that was all that was on offer. We've been hanging on to our League place by our fingernails since we came up. It's not been pretty and the whole club needs a reboot. Ownership, the board and one or two who work behind the scenes. A takeover and us hanging on to our League place would be just the best by far for the hugest majority of us after this miserable year.

I keep looking at the numbers. 21 games still to play. 63 points still up for grabs. Most teams above us have one or two games in hand, but there is no guarantee they will get points from those. I'd prefer it if it was in our hands but all we can do is trust Hursty to work some magic. We all watch for signings avidly but I haven't written off the players we have already. Some may be past it, or not experienced enough but we thought we were down when Jolley came in. A huge percentage is a confidence game and we just need a couple of results and the world would look very different.

So far we've averaged 0.8 points per game played. Poor. But Stevenage have only achieved just under 1, Barrow 1 and the likes of Port Vale, halfway up the table 1.1. In our favour is how tight it actually is this season. We would have only needed to have won a couple more games and we would be in the same form as Port Vale. It's not massive change: just a slight upturn in our fortunes. Don't give up hope, get behind the lads with some positive vibes.

In other news, I'm still getting text updates from Port Vale FC. Are they a better prospect do you think?

UTM! Fenty Out! In Hurst we trust!