Cod Almighty | Diary
Heroes, villains and hope - the things we've been missing
17 August 2021
Your A46 diary is pleased to see that Paul Hurst has admitted he does not yet know his starting XI for Saturday's kick-off against Bromley. Surely this means he hasn't finished his squad yet and that there is a striker on his way to Blundell Park. Where will the goals come from? From the guy on his way right now. Right now... Any second... now!
The youth team had their first win of the season at Doncaster at the weekend, Goundry and Essel the scorers. Play the yoof! I hear someone cry. There's always someone making that cry and it's usually because of the first team's real tears. I've seen Essel play with men and he ain't ready.
Doesn't matter. Here's the new striker... right now... right... now!
Our allocation for Stockport is 800. A niggardly share of the 11,000 seats at Edgeley Park, that went on sale, to season ticket holders first, at 10am today. Taking 800 across the country on a Tuesday night is impressive and shows the fans' continued commitment to away days (or nights).
We've missed it. Not just the away days (Town's away following has been impressive for years now) but everything that live football can bring. Professional sport should be entertainment first. The best entertainment, better than theatre because we don't have to sit in silence or wait for the reviews. We are fans and critics, in every seat a yin and yang of praise and condemnation. We see the worst game, the best game. Someone somewhere in Blundell Park on 28 August will watch Town labour up front against Weymouth and declare it to be the worst they've ever seen. Some one somewhere will see one flick, one touch, one pass, one shot and a new connection will be made. That player will be theirs. He will belong to them.
Siriki Dembele was one who turned the heads of my kids. Peterborough are insistent that they will not sell, Barry Fry claiming Dembele to be "the finished article" and that it would "football suicide" to sell him now. Just talk for the fans? Possibly. Certainly, Peterborough fans will want to keep him and the last thought for them will be Town's 25 per cent sell-on clause. They have a player to excite, to entertain, to give hope. They have a hero.
Something that we've missed. Slim pickings for a few seasons now. First impressions count when it comes to heroes. In our house Vernam never quite fitted the bill after so much inconsistency in the early part of his time with us, and just as he was making us forget that slow start he was gone. Pollock was generally liked and we've all got him in our fantasy teams, but defenders are better appreciated than adored. Rather than heroes, we seem to have what ifs. If Clifton could pass a little better. If Wright could stay fit.
Like lapsed faithful without that thing to venerate, we have a hole in ourselves. Last week I wrote about the need to re-sign Amond as a search for redemption, of making right a past wrong, of compensating for many past wrongs, but it's more than that. A hero-shaped hole is hard to fill. Bogle did it for a few months but we need more. A hero to hang our hat on, to claim as our own. One for a season. That’s all, just one season. Your A46 Diary is well aware that idea of seasons is gone.
Villains. They're easy to find and we have new ways of finding them. Positive lateral flow Covid tests have been reported within the first team. We await the results of PCR tests to see if it will affect team selection or even whether or not the game ahead is played, the opener against Bromley. Holloway's time was partly killed by Covid or by his failure to deal with Covid. Was he ever a Town manager? His time feels like an extended caretaker role. Without the care. Miss Guest Diary has written about the idea of the Town player rather than just a player who plays for Town. That applies to managers too.
At peak, the manager is the hero, the one we look to, look up to. The saviour complex has to work both ways; we need a saviour (or two or three), want them to succeed. We want them to give us hope, to show us something more, something bigger than we see Monday to Friday.
It's not fair on McAtee or Sousa but that's what’s riding on these first few games: will you entertain us? Can we rely on you? Will you cope if we build you up? What will you do when we knock you down? Will you fill the holes within us? Some will expect too much. Some will take delight in knocking them. Some will not deal with the levels of disappointment and things will be said or written that are not acceptable. All of us will once again have the something that we've been missing. Covid allowing.