Cod Almighty | Diary

It's the trotting out clichés that kills us

27 April 2021

Unfortunately this diary does not write itself, but it does read itself. Middle-Aged Diary has already drawn attention to the way that end-of-season games against Exeter tend to be epoch defining, and James Findlater may be free enough from superstition to draw attention to our last couple of results at St James' Park, but I am not.

Not long ago I described a match as being not "must-win" but the first in a series of "must-win" games. Only two things have changed. We are now in the middle of that series, and there is no longer any exaggeration about it. Finish the season with 49 points and we've a chance it will prove enough; it is a stretch to think we could survive with 47.

Too late now to offer my suggestion how Paul Hurst can kill two birds with one stone. Amid the volley of tough love he is rather publicly treating his players to - yes, Matete's goal was great, but he was to blame for theirs; Clifton played well, but his positioning wasn't right in the first half - he said there weren't enough players who deserved a place on the bench last Saturday. Meanwhile, BBC Humberside have decided - surely for cost reasons, as the explanation they have offered doesn't hold water - that they won't send a commentary team to Devon.

The solution is obvious: register John Tondeur as a player, name him as a sub, and take him on the team bus. All the better if he actually does his commentary from the dug out.

In his post-match interview on Saturday, Hurst also referenced the old line about it being the hope that kills you. It's a phrase I've come to dislike. I thought it was because it has become such a tired expression that it had lost all its force. After last week, I know it is because it is not true. After losing to Morecambe, the prospect of four deader than dead rubbers seemed like purgatory, the start of a test of endurance before Grimsby Town once more becomes something to look forward to, some time in July. After winning at Oldham, we are back in the game.

The youth team's decent season is winding down after a draw with Scunthorpe. In eight days' time, after the club's extraordinary general meeting, there may be more solid reasons to look ahead with something other than despair at what we have become. It has not been hope killing us, it has been hopelessness.

We go to Exeter with pride and purpose. See you on the other side.