Cod Almighty | Diary

Saddle up, it's Walsall

25 August 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: Due to a late withdrawal, this is a rather rushed affair so I'm going to take a leaf out of BOTB Diary's book and go for a potpourri of random topics.

Talking of affairs, I was reminded today of the start of my relationship with Mr B by a Tweet I saw on the GTFC hashtag which was eager to let us know that "Sum rite top totty supporting the mariners now". I always ignore anonymous posters, my rule being that anyone who can't put their real name to something has nothing to say worth reading, so I didn't go on to see how much this sentiment was either endorsed or condemned.

What caught my eye was the use of the word "totty", which struck me as a little quaint and old-fashioned in the 21st century. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my sister over 30 years ago. Those readers who know me personally will be aware that I'm a few years older than Mr B but they may not know I was married to someone else when we met. When I told my sister about the affair and that I was going to leave my husband she suggested that I just keep Mr B on the side as "a bit of totty". So I would say to that anonymous Tweeter that there has long been some top totty supporting the Mariners.

An update on this season's lucky shirt – one win and two draws in the league, plus the defeat against Forest. As the hope before that game was not to concede too many and to put up a good performance, I'm taking it that the shirt is still working it's magic and will hopefully continue to do so at Walsall on Saturday. It's going to have its work cut out though: in 35 games at Walsall, Town have won just three times – 1891, 1897 and 2019.

I joke here about superstitions and magical thinking but I was reminded by Middle-Aged Diary’s piece earlier this week of the reality of mental health issues for many people. For someone with anxious tendencies, superstitions can tip over into obsessive behaviour which affects their ability to function on a daily basis. People who feel they might be heading this way should talk to someone about it before it gets out of hand.

Tonight sees the launch of the Welcome to Wrexham documentary on Disney+ which I know is being eagerly awaited by many Town fans, including me. If you aren't already a subscriber you can apparently get a 7-day free trial, but as the final episodes of the series don't air until the middle of September, best hold your horses for the time being. Apart from the Town-related content, I'm looking forward to some cringeworthy moments of exposition – one trailer I saw felt the need to explain what "keeping a clean sheet" means, as in "I can't believe that the goalkeeper ruined the clean sheet". Really, has anyone ever said that in the history of football?

However, reading this review in The Guardian suggests that, once it gets past the celebrity hoo-hah, the series does have something interesting to say about the importance of a football club to its community. Something we can all understand these days.

UTM