Cod Almighty | Diary

You need hands to show the world you're happy

9 January 2023

Miss Guest Diary writes: I've never been much of an Emile Heskey fan since Town played Leicester in the League Cup back in 1999 and Heskey spent what felt like the entire match diving, even when no Town player was near. Now his part in yesterday's FA Cup draw has condemned us to a rather unglamourous fourth round tie. Yes, yes I know the order in which teams come out of the hat is just chance, but still.

Luton or Wigan away. Neither an easy opponent nor a big Premier League payday and, if it turns out to be Luton, McAtee won't be able to play for us. Having said that, seeing Stevenage beat Aston Villa and Wrexham beat Coventry at the weekend tells me there is every hope that Town can win their fourth round match and progress to the fifth round for the first time since 1996.

The prize money for achieving that would be another £120,000 to add to the £213,000 already earned from this season's FA Cup. Of course, that would inevitably lead to increased demands for it to be spent on bringing in a "quality" striker and increased calls for Paul Hurst to leave if that doesn't happen. My hunch is that it won’t. Anyone who has watched the Welcome To Wrexham documentary, or followed the Ronaldo saga, can see the destabilising effect a "star" player can have on a squad, and Hurst and Doig have been all about squad unity in their second spell at the club.

The practical fallout of the draw is annoying though. We have to wait for Luton and Wigan to replay their match next week before we can start making travel plans and scrambling for tickets. Oh, and because it's an away game, I'll have to forego the ticket I have to see Grimsby's own Lloyd Griffith appearing at the Drill Hall in Lincoln that night. Unless the game is picked to be televised and gets moved to a different day or time, but we all know the schedulers will be drooling over two of our 'favourite' rival clubs and, inevitably, Manchester City.

Getting back to Saturday, it's no secret that Harry Clifton has been my favourite player for the last couple of seasons and seeing him captain the side on his 200th appearance was wonderful. We have become so used to the revolving door of players over the last 20 years that it now seems remarkable that Harry made his debut in 2017 and is still playing for Town. Only a handful of other players have topped 200 appearances for us in recent years, and none of them was born locally or came through the youth team.

It's a pity that Harry didn't manage to top off his day by scoring the winning goal – though the club website continues to say he did. He certainly played a huge part in the goal but even I, in my one-eyed appreciation, couldn't deny that the keeper would have saved Harry's shot had it not deflected off Lewis Richardson's "bottom". From the back row of the Pontoon it looked much more like it came off his hand, but who cares: no VAR at this level to spoil our party. Another reason to enjoy being in the lower leagues.

To celebrate our cup run the club launched a new Harry Haddock just in time for the match and quite a few were spotted on Saturday. I shall be getting mine next week in time for our next cup game. See you there!

UTM