Cod Almighty | Diary

No pressure. Just make sure we win

7 October 2022

Our ideas about what is right and proper in professional football reflect when professional football first became a thing we knew and cared about. For Middle-Aged Diary, that means I tend to think that Town belong in the third flight - anything better is dizzying success, anything worse the doldrums - despite the distinct aversion we have shown to hanging around in it since the mid-1970s. It also means that I view with suspicion any club which only joined the Football League for the first time in the last 50 years.

My mind isn't entirely closed. Wimbledon, elected in 1977, are now, definitely a proper League club. Indeed they are a symbol of what being in the League should mean. Clubs like Wycombe Wanderers (1993) and Wigan Athletic (1978) have an asterisk against their name, pointing to a footnote "*Proper club status to be determined." Some are never going to convince me. One I needn't mention, and Salford are another. I try to remember that a handful of their supporters might have been turning out when their team played Trafford in the North West Counties League not so long ago, but last Saturday most gave the impression they had just wandered along for want of something else to do. Perhaps they took a wrong turn and were wondering why the layout of that particular branch of B&Q was so strange, and so poorly stocked for paint.

Crawley Town, you will have guessed quite some time ago, are etched firmly on my not a proper club list. I share entirely the thoughts West Yorkshire Diary expressed about them yesterday. They are also one point off the bottom of the League and have lost their last three games.

Looking at tomorrow's fixture, it is easy to put it down as "must win". There is really no such thing in October. The season will twist this way and that. Clubs who have pulled off astonishing wins will still be in the mire in May, and others who have suffered humiliations will still be hopeful of promotion. But we are due a home win. We would all feel better if it came tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend.