Cod Almighty | Diary

Countdown to Ecstacy

24 June 2024

Miss Guest Diary writes: Friday evening saw me in McMenemy's for Meet the Commentators, organised by The Mariners Trust to raise money for improvements to the Trust bar, and thoroughly enjoyable it was. The panel of John Moore, John Tondeur, David Burns, Matt Dean and Gary Croft regaled the audience with tales of matches and managers from the past, my favourite of which involved a radio phone-in and some Yorkshire puddings. Some of the events had already been touched upon in Tony Butcher's recent interview with JT, and I was disappointed not to hear more about Helen Shapiro. Maybe we'll get another take on that when it's the turn of another panel member to be Butchered.

There's just two days to go until the fixture list for next season is published, when I will have some idea as to how the rest of the year might pan out. Around this time I am always reminded of a scene from the Fever Pitch movie where the Colin Firth character is trying to explain to his non-football supporting girlfriend why he can't plan a weekend away until he knows next season's fixtures.

It's been many a year since we've made any advance plans without knowing where Town are playing. Regrettably, we sometimes get highjacked by other people's plans: Town 5–1 Southend in 1997 (friend's wedding); Town 5–1 West Brom in 1998 (brother moving house); Town 1–1 Fulham in 1999 (family wedding). We're faring better this century – I suspect folks have learned their lesson. Last October my nephew was obliging enough to get married on a Friday, thus allowing us to see Town play Accrington Stanley, though in hindsight we might have been better giving that game a miss.

I'm hoping for some of the further flung fixtures next season to coincide with the warmer months so we can make them part of a long weekend break. And of course I'd like a home game on Boxing Day – something we haven't had since 2017.

We'll also find out who Town will face in the first round of the league cup with the draw taking place on Thursday. Again, fingers crossed for a home fixture to enable indulgence in some Tuesday night pre-match fish and chips.

Meanwhile, we have the Euros. Is it just me or does anyone else feel the tournament has been a little flat so far? Quite a few games have looked tasty on paper but have failed to deliver, the exception being Turkey v Geogia which didn't look promising but was quite exciting. During one particularly dull match Mr B took to looking up "foul throw" on Google translate for each nation and challenging me to guess the language. If you hear someone shouting "rossz dobás" from the back of the Pontoon next season, you'll know who it is.

When you're tired of watching the current football, there have been a couple of excellent football documentaries on TV this month which are still available on iPlayer. Copa 71 is about the women's World Cup which was airbrushed out of history, and King Otto and Football's Greek Gods tells the story of Greece winning the Euros 20 years ago. Enjoy!