Cod Almighty | Diary

Catching up with the 21st century with podcasts and the offside rule!

5 September 2023

Trentside Diary writes: A busy week topped off with a chest infection and laryngitis meant I nearly didn’t make it to Blundell Park on Saturday. So pleased I dragged myself there, trying very hard not to cough all over everyone around me. Forget coughing, I was purring after that performance. Probably the first time this season that we put together a full ninety-minute performance, and very enjoyable it was too.

Thanks to Miss Guest Diary for highlighting the faux pas at Wrexham. I don’t think of myself as a doom-monger but it still made me smile. Doesn’t matter how shiny and tinselly you become, there’s always room for a cock-up.

Being of a certain age, I’ve never got into podcasts. I much prefer reading than listening to take in ideas, information or instructions which I can then do in my own time. I was pointed in the direction of a new Town podcast, View from the Findus, so I thought I’d make an exception and give it a go (no offence to the other Town podcast that has been going for some time). I have only listened to the first episode but thoroughly enjoyed it. Let’s hope it does well, there’s more than enough room for two and the styles appear different.

There was some online discussion about the possible signing of Tom Pett, formerly of Port Vale. I got myself very confused when I looked him up out of curiosity, and the first thing that came up said he was a Lincoln player. I then had to double check transfer window details until another article showed him out of contract. Do we need another midfielder? Who knows? But I will say for all the criticism he gets, one of Hursty’s strengths is useful signings. He may not get everyone he wants but he certainly signs some decent players.

We have a match tonight but I’m still boycotting the Trophy games. I’m not knocking anyone who wants to go, I just wouldn’t consider attending until they remove the B Teams. It’s not healthy for the football pyramid and if these ultra-rich clubs want to play their players who rarely get a game, let them come up with their own competition. It’s insulting to professionals in the lower leagues.

Finally, do you understand the offside rule? It used to irritate me to death over forty years ago when there were women who took pride in saying that they didn’t like football and they didn’t understand the rule. What’s not to understand?

Fast forward to now and I have to say that over the last few years with the various tweaks to accommodate VAR it has become tortuous. Apparently it’s no longer when the ball leaves the foot of the passer that determines whether the receiver of the ball is offiside but the first point of contact of the pass leading to that player. Torns IF, a third-tier Swedish club, have identified a loophole. Cue another likely change.

Rule makers of football are so keen to embrace VAR that the rest of us have to put up with this constant tinkering. Let’s just dump it. But before the rule is updated yet again, let’s have a scoop move on the pitch at Blundell Park. Our officials would never cope with the nuance would they?

UTM!