Cod Almighty | Diary

It’s the hope that kills you!

18 March 2021

Trentside Diary writes: It's still tough isn’t it? I won’t give up till the fat lady has gargled with TCP and warbled her first line. As another Town fan sighed, if only we kept losing, we could give up that last scintilla of hope. That tiny shard that pierces the heart of a lower league football fan. Three games unbeaten, who would have thought it? As my other half says before every match his team plays, "As long as my team plays well, then I'll be happy" but deep down we know it's only us trying to get something positive from every game. If two close rivals in the table are playing each other, our pre-match conversation is without fail, "What result do you want?", "0-0 draw with two red cards for each side".

What neither of us ever wish for is a significant injury for anyone on the pitch, however much we might dislike certain players or teams. Reading the report yesterday that Joe Bunney was sent to hospital following the draw with Carlisle and will be out for the rest of the season really brings home how fragile the career of a footballer can be. I sincerely hope that he is able to overcome whatever it is and resume his career. Some fans had made him the pantomime villain whenever Green wasn't playing. Who are they going to pick on now?

Many players have drifted in and out of consciousness over the last 20 years as we have slipped down the leagues. How we dream of the success of decades past when many players grew up locally or became adopted Grimbarians because of their contribution and commitment to the club. We have read how our non-chairman has dealt poorly with player contract negotiations which meant we lost people we would have liked to keep at the club. But there are also a fair few who were brief interludes in a black and white shirts. A wisp of recognition at the edge of our consciousness and we have "didn't he play for us at one time" conversations or do a quick search online. Sadly, Bunney along with several others from this season will almost certainly become one of those. I feel for them all. They really didn't get a realistic chance to showcase what they can do.

In completely different news, we are vaguely thinking about getting a new hound to join our pack, and with that I keep noticing articles about dogs. The Blue Cross this week published a list of the top 100 dog names. I won't bother you with a 1970s-style Top of the Pops countdown but straight in at number 70 is Ollie. How many of those are the poor mutts of the "love-letter" writers who have now sent them to a rehoming charity? It turns out Ollie wasn’t even for Christmas. What I will put my money on though is that Fenty didn't make the list.

Anyway, as many of us wrangle with the different permutations, there are still 12 games to go. I'm just about, barely, hanging on to hope that we can escape.

UTM! Fenty Out!