Cod Almighty | Diary
Hello darkness, my old friend
10 October 2022
Miss Guest Diary writes: It seems a bit churlish to criticise Town's performance on Saturday when they scored three goals, kept a clean sheet and secured their first home win of the season, so I won't. Except to say that I didn't enjoy the game much.
Afficionados of Danny Baker's radio shows will be familiar with his habit of lurching onto the air talking about some book he's read recently or an amazing fact he's just discovered and constantly saying to his co-host "We'll start the show in a minute". Well that's what Saturday's game felt like, except that it never really did get going. Had we been playing anyone more competent than Crawley I think we'd still be waiting for that first home win.
I saw quite a few posts on Twitter puzzling about the lack of atmosphere at Blundell Park. To me it simply felt like normal service has been resumed. Long-term residents of the Pontoon will be familiar with the experience of Saturday afternoons spent mumbling and grumbling and catching up with friends. The frenzied home crowds of last season and the start of this one I put down initially to the sheer relief of escaping from Covid captivity and more recently to the relief of escaping non-League at the first time of asking.
Nearly 25 years of regular attendances have shown me that the Blundell Park crowd only really comes alive when there's a large noisy away following to counter, or when the referee makes an egregious decision in the opposition's favour. Then all hell breaks loose. A team playing tippy-tappy football in front of their 47 silent supporters and a referee who has the gumption to order his linesman to flag a goal offside is never going to set the crowd alight.
We are probably guaranteed a good atmosphere at the next home game in two weeks' time as Bradford have already sold out their allocation, causing the club to temporarily suspend the opening of any new accounts for online ticket purchases.
It was good to see the return of the Mighty Mariner on Saturday. He even got the Pontoon to indulge in a couple of rounds of Sing When We’re Fishing. A good start but the last long-term inhabitant of the costume invested the mascot with a real personality so the new one has got very big (foam) shoes to fill. It also got me thinking that I can't remember the last time I noticed another team's mascot. It used to be a regular thing to be taunted by mascots at away games, often accompanied by a debate about whether the large furry figure was supposed to be a cow or a reindeer or some other animal. Have mascots gone out of fashion?
Finally, on Mental Health Awareness Day I'd like to offer some words of praise to the club for joining forces with local mental health service Navigo. Representatives of the organisation were present at Saturday's game, handing out contact details and raising awareness of their services. Both they and the club say they are keen to hear ideas from fans and the wider community about ways to help positively impact mental health and wellbeing through football. There's a lot of talk these days about reducing the stigma of mental illness, so this feels like a great initiative from the club.
UTM