Cod Almighty | Diary

And where do we go from here? Which is the way that's clear?

16 November 2023

Hey up people, your Guest Diarist, a man convinced that nostalgia is a mild form of depression, has dragged himself away from old video clips of Town's history supplied by the ever-diligent @onthisGTFCday and is here to try and make sense of the here and now. It's not easy, the worse we play the bigger the victory. The axis has shifted from all that defensive keep us shape stuff and the hope that we nick one with a 25 yard screamer, to we score goals for fun but have forgotten everything we ever knew about defending. Rock on.

Now I know nothing, nothing at all. I have watched thousands of football matches without ever developing a succinct way of identifying what the hell is going on really. Patterns of play? They tell me that professionals practise them endlessly but do I actually notice them? Well I suppose I do when the pattern is simple (hoof it up to the big man whether you have one or not) but not so much when the pattern is akin to a fair isle jumper (ermm, construct several interlocking triangles and then take tiger mountain by strategy). But one thing we all keep noticing is the opposition has discovered (often inadvertantly) that if they play the ball in straight lines through the centre of the pitch against Town that they often end up with the ball at their feet right near where you can do a goal. We have conceded four or five important goals in this manner this season - to the point where John Tondeur is audibly groaning at the repetition and feebly asking his co-commentator how we can make it stop. To which comes no real reply.

But we never used to concede as weirdly as this. And I haven't noticed other teams in our division doing it. But I have spotted a few ocurrences elsewhere. In the fancy-dandy world of the top division the so-called little teams do it against the preening superstar sides. Quite a few times this season. So has our cup run gone to our heads and we have started to ape the patterns of play seen on Match of the Day? If we have then I suggest a dose of back to basics is in order. Don't get me wrong, the goal rush is great but we have to score more than them. And when we concede too many that gets really problematic.

Speaking of which, wouldn't it be nice if we could amend the history books to say we only beat Slough say 4-2 not 7-2? It was a bit cruel that last 15 minutes - miles from home, Grimsby-cold, losing and absolutely knackered. Poor sods.

The computer is telling me to write another 50 words. So I will leave you to ponder the connection between Walk on the Wild side and Rock On (younger and even middle-aged readers will have to google these two songs I expect). Direct your answers to me on that Twitter. See yer.