Cod Almighty | Diary
Have I got a little story for you
24 November 2021
The league table doesn't lie. Well it does, sometimes. No one believed Town were the best team in the second flight when they sidefooted security to hop on stage and grab the mic after five games of 2001. No, as long as you give it time to get out of bed and make itself a cuppa, the league table doesn't lie. The all-time league table is even more trustworthy. If you look at it, you will see that Town lose more often than the win.
Even the tactical master stroke of dropping to the football basement and beyond since 2005 in order to pad our numbers as flat track bullies doesn't change this. If we focus solely on that period, we still lose more often than we win. It doesn't matter if we are playing Manchester United or Solihull Moors, we are, statistically speaking, losers.
What does this mean apart from establishing a new chant of "You're nothing special we lose 39 percent of the time" Well, the hope would be that something as routine as brushing your teeth should be received with appropriate balance.
Keeping clear of social media during the game is sound advice. Even dipping in can distract you, you're meant to be watching or listening to the game, right? Thanks to Radio Humberside's malaise last night, exiles who weren't at Solihull had no choice. Actually, malaise is being too nice. They encountered a technical issue they clearly gave no shits about fixing. That left Town fan Super Jack Brighton to show the improvisation they were lacking and broadcast the game on Twitter from his car radio. Hope you didn't get frostbite and enjoy the deserved freebie from Steels, Jack.
The downside of Jack's efforts was being amid the social media carnage that goes with a defeat. Moors' second goal set off the sound of a hundred virtual plastic seats slamming upright as a steady figure of 400-ish dropped and listeners raced off to tweet their displeasure on another "unacceptable" and "embarassing" defeat. The fans deserve better? The fans deserve no more, no less than the opposition. You go along you cheer, if you're lucky you find some meat in your gristle and potato pie, and you go home. You start thinking you deserve something just for showing up and before you know it, you're a Newcastle fan.
Daubney has played and watched football for 40 years and is happy to admit knowing nothing about it apart from it being a complete mystery. A good team can play badly. A bad team can play well. You can play well and lose, play crap and win. The ref can fuck you over. Luck can fuck you over. It's not just Town. How else can you explain Liverpool. Earlier this year they completed a club record 68 games unbeaten at home. What did one of the greatest teams in history with one of the most lauded managers do next? They lost the next six home games, setting a club record for consecutive defeats. Boo, Klopp Out.
Last night, Shaun Pearson was a few inches away from equalising. With 20 minutes left, Town would have fancied a win. Tweets about our unacceptable squad would instead have been about them "showing character". However, one goalline clearance off a lucky defender's arse and 10 seconds later it's 2-0. Moments and margins. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. They don't make Paul Hurst a good or bad manager or a squad that looked sexy in September to be numpties in November and needing a rebuild. That league table proves it.
Paul Hurst says as much in his post match interview with John Tondeur on the club's Youtube. One is tempted to say that the quality of the phone relay from Jack's motor was better than this official audio but the title of "We Need To Be More Alive" is clearly a Pearl Jam reference, so we'll let them off.
Not being let off is Ryan Sears. The full-back was convicted of drink driving yesterday for an offence in Cleethorpes on 24 October. JT asked Hurst for a comment on Sears' immediate future and received a straight bat block in return. Just as the team on the pitch is being tested, the new owners are too.
Whilst not expecting Hurst to have the answer last night, you would hope the club will announce prompt action on the incident. Likewise, the situation surrounding Dale Houlston and his resignation as Women's team boss needs to be clarified. We can't control results on the pitch but it's vital we maintain the improvements since May 2021 off the pitch.