Cod Almighty | Diary

Making your mind up

26 September 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: Losing only two games out of nine and sitting tenth in the table is pretty good for a newly-promoted side, all things considered. Look at Stockport – storming the Conference last year and now languishing in 17th place, having lost six games. But I have to confess to not really enjoying much of the actual football this season.

The wins at Rochdale and Colchester felt very fluky, and even the joy of seeing Harry Clifton score twice at Walsall couldn't disguise the fact that Town had a very poor first half in that game. Scoring late goals will send the fans home in high spirits, but when it can't be managed, as on Saturday against the ten men of Swindon, there's nothing left but to reflect on the overall quality of the football.

Now I may be risking a lot of flak by saying this, but I don't think the Hunt-Holohan midfield pairing is working. This seemed obvious to me in the lacklustre performance at Colchester. Harry Clifton, who apparently did well in the centre in the Boycott Cup on Tuesday, and Kieran Green, who started the early season games before getting injured, were both available and could have been played instead of either Hunt or Holohan, yet Hurst stuck with the same pairing for the Swindon game on Saturday, and again it didn't really work.

Is Paul Hurst suffering from choice overload? This is a recognised psychological phenomenon which occurs when a person is faced with too many choices being available. It can result in decision fatigue, sticking to the default option, or even avoiding making a decision altogether. We hear a lot these days about the benefits of squad rotation in football. Town now have 31 players on their books – though to be fair some are injured and others are juniors – so maybe it's time for a bit of rotation.

The lucky shirt department is certainly considering rotation. The current shirt appears to have lost its mojo and with the arrival of the autumn equinox swapping the short-sleeved one for a long-sleeved alternative is a definite possibility. I'll let you know how it goes in due course.

Picking up on matters touched upon in last week's DN35 podcast, Chairman Wow is once again writing in The Guardian, this time about the need for an independent football regulator. And CEO Debbie Cook was interviewed by the BBC about Town being one of only two Football League clubs to pay the real living wage. It really does feel like our club is in safe hands these days.

Talking of which, in other off-the-field news – chaps can look away now – the Mariners Trust have teamed up with the club to provide free sanitary products in the ladies toilets to help the fight against period poverty. Still no hot water though, or even much water at all these days.

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