Cod Almighty | Diary

Songs of Praise

15 September 2025

Miss Guest Diary writes: They haven't learned yet, have they? Who? What? Those early leavers from Blundell Park haven't yet learned that, no matter how averagely the team is performing or how badly the game seems to be going, this group of players will not give up till the bitter end. So, for the second time this season the early leavers will have missed a crucial stoppage-time goal. I remain mystified as to why they go – to beat the traffic, to beat the queue at Pip's Chips, to get home in time to watch a boring Premier League game on TV? Whatever. Mugs.

Talking of mugs, the club have issued a lovely mug to commemorate Town's victory over Man United, which I just had to get to add to the collection. That's 27 and counting – all of them different.

Back to Saturday's game. It wasn't a classic – Artell's lament that half a dozen players had an "off day" doesn't go far enough. It seemed to me that the only players who matched their usual standard were McJannet and Pym. The rest of the starting 11 seemed lethargic and disjointed; add to that the spoiling and bullying tactics of the opposition and the erratic decisions of the match officials, and it was a painful watch at times. No wonder the crowd were mainly silent.

I'm probably biased, but once Cambridge scored they seemed intent only on kicking our players while falling about claiming fouls when a Town player so much as crossed their path. And don't get me started on how much time they wasted on faffing around with their totally ineffective long throws. The game livened up a little when the subs came on but it still seemed like a lost cause. But we reckoned without the referee.

Maybe he felt guilty for not sending off the player who assaulted Jaze Kabia, and continued to do so for the rest of the game, or for the inadequacies of the linesman under the Police Box. Whatever it was, from where I was sat in the Pontoon, the penalty he awarded looked very soft, and Kabia's strike was certainly soft enough for Jake Eastwood to save it. But there was nothing soft about Justin Amaluzor's determination to get ahead of his marker and put the ball in the net. A point rescued, and one of those draws which feels like a victory in the moment.

If you haven't done so already, I urge you to give a listen to CA co-founder Pete Green talking about Town football songs on yesterday's Colin Murray Show on Radio 5 Live. Only a snippet of Pete's new song about the Man Utd game was played but you can hear the full version here. There was no mention of my favourite – we piss on your fish – but I suspect it wouldn't have made it past the censor on a Sunday morning.

Now it's on to the League Cup game tomorrow. Sheffield Wednesday made the bizarre offer of an extra 2,000 tickets with a rider attached that they must all be bought or those sold will be cancelled and refunded. What an odd way to do business. Selling that many tickets so late in the day seems like a very big ask, but the Mariners Trust did their part by buying up 200 tickets and making them available free to members. A lovely gesture, whatever the ultimate outcome.

With a fair wind and a fair ref here's hoping for mug number 28.