Cod Almighty | Diary

Where were you when……?

3 October 2023

When I was logging on to my laptop this morning a photo came up from early 2017. So much has happened since then, both in life and football, it really got me reflecting. Then I thought I'd better stop daydreaming and get my head down to write a diary! 2017: where were Town then? A relatively recently installed Marcus Bignot as manager and strange times looking back on it. I still don't think I could sum up his time as manager other than to say it all felt a bit peculiar after Hurst. One of the worst aspects of those days was that the subsequent sacking led to the reappointment of Slade. A very dark day as far as I was concerned. Bignot went on to manage Barrow after us which brings me nicely back to the present and tonight's opponents.

I love a match under the lights and it looks like it could be perfect. Dry and not too cold. Let's hope the game measures up. I always have a look to see if the opposition have any former Town players in their ranks and on this occasion I couldn't see anyone. That seems like a positive but they are yet another team that has had a strong start. We've said it many times but this really isn't an easy league.

Having not made it to Swindon, I’m hoping Donovan Wilson gets some time after his impact on Saturday. We have some decent looking players, we just need things to gel. The downside of a poor run of results is you can tell that some players try almost too hard. Anyway, a decent performance, maybe a stunner from Otis Khan before his international call up and three points would be lovely, thank you Town.

I read with interest Chairman Wow's article in yesterday's Guardian. As a fan of a lower league club, there is little there to disagree with. I personally don't object to the concept of football players having agents. Just because you have an amazing talent doesn't mean that you or your mum or dad are capable of negotiating the best deal for your future, but surely agents could be more regulated?

There was an agent sitting next to us at the last home game who had to come to watch some of his players. I tuned him out for most of the game as he seemed a bit full of himself but at least he cared enough to turn up. What does irritate me about the riches of the top flight is how many players the clubs have on their books, but rarely if ever play them. The likes of Pep Guardiola still moan that their first team play too many games. Personally I'd rather they rotated their squad a bit rather than try to change the game, but what do I know?

UTM!