Cod Almighty | Diary

Puppetry and muppetry

25 September 2023

Miss Guest Diary writes: Last week I read a great piece in the paper from radio presenter Max Rushden about Luton's dismal start to the season. Now Max is a Cambridge United supporter, so he knows all about the pain of the lower leagues and this paragraph in particular struck home:

"Success happens so rarely, it can't be what most of us are in this for. You have to find a way of revelling in all of it – not only the highs, the pain of relegation, or the monotony of mid-table mediocrity. The love for your club isn't directly proportional to success; it isn't division specific. And there is pride in continuing to support your team in the tough times."

I was clinging onto that thought on Saturday when Danilo Orsi scored the winner for Crawley in the 96th minute, and even more so when a dozen or so idiots in the Pontoon started to chant that they wanted Hurst out. It's not like that third goal wasn't coming all half. Frankly, when I saw the line-up my predicted scoreline was 1-3, so Town went one better than I was expecting by getting two goals. But losing in the last minute has an extra sting.

Even before the game the omens were not good. Who can forget the disastrous performance turned in by Town at the 140th anniversary game, when they lost to Morecambe in the Jolley era and were described by Mr Butcher as "A horror show of shadow puppetry and muppetry". If Saturday's celebration of Town's 145th birthday was designed to remind us that this is a new era and erase the memories of the Fenty years, it failed and served only to remind us that football has endless ways of disappointing us.

I felt a little foolish among my usual Pontoon crowd for wearing a retro shirt. I, who would never normally wear any football shirt, dug around at home and found a Steve Croudson goalkeeping top which we'd received when we sponsored him over 20 years ago. Some of my acquaintance were simply cynical about the 'wear a retro shirt' initiative, claiming it was designed to shift leftover stock in the club shop. One person took the biscuit, though. He is younger than me, lives in Grimsby and I know is on social media but when he asked me if I was wearing the Croudson shirt because it was the anniversary of his debut, or something, I realised that the whole 145th birthday thing had completely passed him by. When you spend waste a lot of time on the internet yourself, it's easy to forget that others don't.

I was able to cheer myself up with a bit of schadenfreude – the football fan's first resort in bad times. A good friend is a Stockport County season ticket holder and he kept me updated with the score from Edgeley Park – not only did they beat Wrexham 5-0 but they hit the post and had one cleared off the line. Perhaps BOTB Diary should spend more time praising the Red Dragons. Then there's Cheltenham Town – nine games played, no wins, no goals scored and 15 conceded. And, of course, Luton have still yet to win a game. It makes Town's start look pretty good by comparison.

UTM