Cod Almighty | Diary

They say never fall in love with a loanee

21 October 2021

Before I start this week's diary of typical rambling pessimism, Mr Target Demographic Diary would like to apologise to Ryley Towler. In my last entry, after he had just joined Town, I was sorry for for the lad as I couldn't see where he would fit in the current squad. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. We've had the ginger Pirlo, now it appears we have the ginger Maldini. With Owura Edwards being the only other player, we've received from Bristol City in recent memory, whoever runs the Bristol City academy deserves a raise.

I'm sweating as I write as I realise that we only have both Towler and Alex Hunt until the new year. Don't panic all at once though. We still have Shaun Pearson and David Longe-King, but finding someone else who can deliver a corner quite as well as Hunt could be a challenge.

However, unlike every other season I've supported Town, I weirdly hold faith: faith in the manager to make the right decision; faith in the owners not to let the club fall into turmoil; faith in the fans to get behind the boys even at our worst; and faith in the players, to wear the shirt with pride and give to 100 per cent no matter who we're playing.

We're now more than 10 games in and, if it wasn't already, promotion is starting to run across the lips of many Town fans. There is no doubt, we should be up there but, as we have mentioned many times, there is only one automatic promotion spot. The play-offs are the Bermuda Triangle of football: teams disappear for a long time then suddenly come back to beat you and before you know it, you're spending another year down here. Even if we don't get promoted this year, we need to enjoy the football that is on display come Saturday – you don't see it very often. It's becoming a privilege to witness each weekend, especially when you consider the tactics some of the other teams we've faced this season have deployed.

Watching the Bromsgrove game on telly last weekend with my dad, we came to a sudden realisation that maybe we're the bad guy this year. The BBC commentary depicted us almost as a bully, robbing a poor club of money. While I've been supporting we've always been the underdog, but not this year I suppose. That's going to take some getting used to.

In the next round of the Cup at Kidderminster Harriers we're probably going to be favourites again, giving us all the more reason – in true GTFC fashion – to go and lose. However, if you are looking for a good omen, my 10th birthday (when I was a mascot) was a 3-1 win against the Harriers all the way back in 2013. Does anyone know how much it costs to be a mascot at Kidderminster? Asking for a friend.

UTM.