Cod Almighty | Diary

If you’re happy and you know it, enjoy the moment

21 February 2023

Well this morning started with some strange IT stuff and I couldn't get into the Cod Almighty website. Had the gremlins been in overnight? Had we been hacked? Is Putin holding the site to ransom? Probably just my wifi. Anyway, I'm here now so, like it or not, you will get the joy that is my diary.

I'm still in a happy place following the win on Saturday. That makes me nervous that tonight will be another damp squib. I feel like this game has been moved so many times that there is a degree of disbelief that it will actually go ahead. In reality it's only three times but it still feels like more. Those cup runs, eh? Mess everything up. One of our games in hand tonight, it would just be lovely to get another three points under our belts, but there's many a banana skin awaits us before that final whistle.

If you have read my diaries before you will have realised that I am firmly in the camp of being a happy clapper. Does that mean I'm a permanently jolly person, always here to defend the club, the players or the owners? No, not really. Does that mean I'm not massively disappointed when we lose, with no fight, having put in a poor performance? No. Does that mean that I wasn't devasted when we lost in the 2015 playoff final or other equally significant games? No. I shed a few tears on the way home. To have got so close and then stumbled, helped along by an incompetent referee. If I had a pound for every time we've been done by a ref, I would be sitting here now planning how to spend my stash.

For me being a happy clapper means looking at the bigger picture and how far we have come in eighteen months. Doesn't mean I'll settle for where we are or that I'm happy to always be a middle-to-bottom fourth tier team. No, I want the glory days back but realistically it will take time to build after our decline over most of the first two decades of the millennium.

Look at the likes of Brentford. It's many years since we were up against them. My son was primary school age and fascinated by the accent "Cam orn Bren-fud". It's taken years of steady progress to get where they are now. That's my wish for Town. If it's mainly two steps forward, one back, we'll get there.

Does that mean you can't moan? Can't mention our league form or the transfer window because we've got to be permanently positive? No of course not. I'm lucky that I have family who I can moan to about football so I don't have to vent on social media. I don't mind the reasonable discussions about the game, formation, issues. The problem with social media is it mainly amplifies the vitriol, catastrophises hiccups, and brings out the numpties.

Gone are the days when a woman near me used to constantly harangue Andy Parkinson but her squeaky voice probably didn't make it as far as the pitch. Just don't tag the players, owners, club officials in. Equally it's lovely to see the joy after a result like Saturday's. Let's hope that's the mood tomorrow.

UTM!