Cod Almighty | Diary

Give it to Gary

14 August 2023

Miss Guest Diary writes: I am having trouble making up my mind whether Saturday's game was any good or not.

Positives were: we scored two goals away from home; our new striker is "off the mark"; my favourite, Harry, scored; we only lost by one goal to a team who most people rate as really good (though I'm not convinced). Negatives were: we really struggled at left-back; Charles Vernam seems to have lost whatever skills he had; Luke Waterfall's own goal. I'm blaming Daubney Diary for tempting fate with that last one by talking about one of Luke's previous own goals in the pub before the game.

I have made up my mind: Saturday's game was 'any good'. I know many on social media – and someone in my own house – disagree, but I'm basing that on the feeling I had, which lasted right up to the final whistle, that Town could have found that equaliser if they'd had just a little more composure, and maybe a little more luck, when they reached the opposition box. That's a feeling which has often been missing in recent years and signals to me that it's too early to write off this season.

As always when Town lose, I look for the silver lining in other areas of the day, but that's a mixed bag too. We found a parking space in West Bridgford very easily, the pub we chose was quiet and the beer good, according to the beer-drinking friends we met up with, who had travelled from Grimsby, York and Ireland. Things went downhill a little when we got absolutely soaked walking to Meadow Lane, but it was great to find ourselves part of the nearly-3,000 Town fans singing and cheering the team on.

However, I have a bone to pick with the drummer – he's fixated on that "allez, allez, allez" chant, which I think most Town fans actually render as "olé, olé, olé". Whatever. It makes us sound like every other football crowd you hear on the TV. And as for his alternative – "black and white army" – that just seems dumb when your opponents are actually playing in black and white and your team is in the red strip. Something more traditional like "we piss on your fish" would be preferable, or maybe fans taking the trouble to learn a verse or two of Up the Mariners.

Something unexpected was the appearance of Gary Lund on the pitch to do the half-time draw. Regular readers will know that my other half, aka Cod Almighty's ace match reporter, went to school with Mr Lund. The two of them stayed friends for a few years after Gary left Town for Lincoln and were still friends when Tony and I got together in 1990. By that time Gary was at Notts County, which is why my first ever visit to Wembley to see a play-off final was in 1990 to see Notts County beat Tranmere Rovers and be promoted to the second division.

It being only my third ever live football match, I really hadn't a clue about positioning and tactics. Having noticed that Gary seemed to spend a lot of time near but not actually touching the ball, I innocently asked what position he played. Was it his role to distract the defenders while someone else scored? Much hilarity ensued and the phrase "Lunding about" was coined, meaning to be present but not actively engaged in something. Judging by the way he was leaning on the wall in the tunnel on Saturday while things went on around him, Gary is still pretty good at Lunding about.

Maybe we've found a new role for the Wolds Panther.

UTM