Cod Almighty | Diary
When we hopped onto the world's most lubricated slide and glided effortlessly into the doldrums
19 October 2018
Town's 2-1 victory in 1991 over this Saturday's visitors Exeter City not only confirmed a second successive promotion but represented a golden period in the club's modern history.
It began with the appointment of Alan Buckley in 1988 although, for the first couple of years at least, I don't think any of us would've realised we were in a golden period. That's the problem with them – you don't know you're in one until you slip out of one. Conversely, you know exactly when you're in the absolute shit. Hindsight need not apply.
Golden periods don't necessarily correlate with high league placings, at least not in your West Yorkshire Diary's opinion. I felt that, at our height in non-League, we were enjoying a golden period in the sense that we had a strong bond with a loyal playing squad, we enjoyed some amazing away days, we were winning far more games than we were losing and, crucially, we were closer than ever off the pitch with brilliant fan-led initiatives – capped, quite magnificently, by Operation Promotion. Plus, we got that Arnold moment to keep it nice and warm in our memories.
Since that promotion-clinching win against the Grecians 27 years ago we've won at Liverpool and lost at Chasetown. We've signed Clive Mendonca, Ivano Bonetti, Anthony Straker and Tommy Forecast. We've topped the Championship and hit the rock bottom of the Conference. The lows, however, have been prolonged and sustained – and our record against Exeter since that glorious day in '91 is modern-day Grimsby Town in microcosm.
As a Football League club, we lost 1-0 to non-League Exeter in a 2005 FA Cup match. In six league meetings against them we've won just once and failed to score on five occasions. In fact, only Nathan Jarman has managed to breach their defence since John Cockerill's brace.
Last season's home defeat to a Jayden Stockley penalty came after Russell Slade was sacked and before Michael Jolley was appointed, during Paul Wilkinson's caretaker spell. Anaemic up front, lax in defence and unable to entertain the home crowd with any sort of energy or purpose. Yep, that sounds like Town.
And yet I wouldn't consider Exeter a bogey side. If these are the standards by which we define a bogey side then we have about 17 others to class as such since May 2002, when we hopped onto the world's most lubricated slide and glided effortlessly into the doldrums.
I'm not sure how I feel about tomorrow's game. Given those back-to-back wins we got at the start of the month, I'm yet to feel a surge of confidence or any reassurance that we won't yet drop back into another desperate scrap for survival. Exeter are up there with Lincoln and my hope is that we can put in the kind of performance that shook the Imps to the core and left the Cowleys feeling grateful for Carl Boyeson's generosity.
At this stage of the season, all I'm looking for is promise. I think we saw some of it at Macclesfield and Bastard Franchise Scum FC, while we got a great big dose of it against Lincoln. We've all had a glimpse into what Jolley's trying to do here. Given his extensive work in football with young players, perhaps it's no surprise that we've achieved recent results with a younger starting XI.
And the big news ahead of kick-off is that the majority of crocked players are now back in contention for a starting berth, so Jolley should be able to name a squad close to the one that picked up maximum points against Carlisle and Port Vale.
These are barren times at Blundell Park. It's been a good while since I last considered us strong at home, so here's hoping that Jolley's men put in a competitive performance against one of the division's leading sides and give the home crowd something to cheer.
UTM!