Cod Almighty | Diary

Are we keeping you up?

26 March 2021

Daubney Diary writes: There you are scrabbling around social media looking for diary stuff when you see that tomorrow's opponents Walsall have a newish-looking fan site called Blazing Saddlers. A pun-tastic name, ad-free and not a bookies odds in sight. Well done. Their match review is decent too despite their reckoning that we played a 4-4-3 formation at Barrow. Everyone knows we haven't lined up like that since the 1990s when Paul Groves regularly gave the impression of being two players. Anyway, they have stats and such and save me the bother of getting the Dave Wherry books out to tell you things like this is their first league visit to Blundell Park since the Graham Rodger era. 

Not mentioned is the absence of Joe Adams. The Brentford loanee is on under-21 international duty this afternoon for Wales. If you fancy a peek there's a link to a live stream here. Stand down tiresome iFollow warnings, it's all legal.

The preview doesn't mention either that manager Brian Dutton attributed their avoidance of a win against 10-men Southend on Tuesday to "brain-dead football". I'd suggest that any mention of death is tempting fate for a man who's yet to win a game and could be on the Grimsby Reaper's to-do list if Town can muster a victory. Oh, look at that. Should Scott Bartlett be recorded as a victim as well? Mark Cooper was already announced to take over Forest Green Rovers but didn't he swoop in ahead of schedule and give the half-time team talk at Wembley? 

There's no "if we can muster a victory" about it; we must muster a victory. I explained our plight this week to a Liverpool-supporting friend. After he'd unglazed his eyes he explained that it reminded him of the 2019 title run-in when LFC knew they just had to keep winning even though it felt futile in the attempt to keep pace with eventual winners, Man City. Of course, I agreed, and you winning the Champions League that season was akin to our stuffing at Dagenham & Redbridge. It's almost as if we're fucking twins. 

There is at least one lesson to be learned from Dave's first world problems. Liverpool, kings of England and recently of all Europe, lost 6 (SIX) home games in a row. With some of the best strikers in the world suddenly unable to hit a cow's arse with a banjo. It makes no sense, an anomoly that cannot be explained. Like when you put two Pot Noodles in the microwave and it doesn't double the time taken to nuke them, it just doesn't bother nuking them at all. If that can happen, Town reeling off the wins needed to keep us in the League is a mere bagatelle.

Yesterday's lovely Trentside diary prompted an equally nice response on Twitter. Harry isn't the only friend that's been missed in the past year and the good news is that Lisa and her colleagues at the club have been contacting season ticket holders to check in on them during lockdown. Well done, just the sort of positive difference the club and supporters can make whatever league or division we happen to be in.  

That's your lot. If you're looking for more on this #MatchdayEve, it's been a belter of a week from my fellow diarists. Use the nifty little arrow at the top of the page to catch up on any you've missed. There's also Tony B's Barrow match report and our postbag.