Cod Almighty | Diary

Just One More Thing

16 March 2026

Miss Guest Diary writes: What could be better for soothing the spirits after a long(ish) fruitless trip to Oldham than an hour or so spent in the company of Colombo, everyone's favourite cosy crime detective from the 1970s. If you haven't seen Peter Falk and William Shatner trying to ham each other off the screen in this episode, I urge you to seek it out and give it a watch.

To be honest, though, I didn't really need a lot of soothing. In the grand scheme of Town away days a 1-0 loss at Oldham doesn't figure in the top 50 of bad experiences. The journey was relatively uneventful, the result was predictable and we had the pleasure of meeting quite a few friends and acquaintances from the Town family.

I have had to accept over the past couple of years that David Artell seems very much of the same mind as Retro Diary when it comes to drawing a game of football: draws are a waste of time and you should go all out for a win, even if it might mean you eventually lose. There we were on Saturday in the final third of the game with the scores at 0-0 and neither team looking likely to score. My thoughts drifted wistfully to games of old under Paul Hurst and the approach of the Parslow Point. It was obvious that Sellars-Fleming had to go (why he hadn't been subbed at half-time rather than Soonsup-Bell is a mystery) and Artell could have brought on Staunton and switched to a back five. Not for our David such negative tactics, instead he brought on Kabia and upped the intensity – but not the quality – of Town's attacks. That Oldham would score a breakaway goal seemed so inevitable that Mr B didn't even feel the need to fling open a toilet door – in fact he was surprisingly sanguine about the whole thing.

Town's socials are probably going mental about the season being 'over' because we've slipped out of the play-off places and will be mental in a different way should we reclaim seventh spot by beating Fleetwood tomorrow. I can't be bothered to keep track any more – especially as I don't see promotion as the be-all-and-end-all of following Town. If we go up before the club are really ready – and I don't think they are yet – then the risk is we could follow in the footsteps of clubs like Morecambe and Forest Green and slip back into non-league with successive relegations.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout out to Town's drummer on Saturday – the constant rhythm which kept the crowd singing for almost the entire second half obviously energised the players. Unfortunately, energy alone won't get the ball in the net, and with the Wolds Panther currently injured for who knows how long, it's going to be even harder to score. The prospect of a couple of postponements resulting from international call-ups for Turi, Soonsup-Bell and Oduor, while inconvenient, looks more inviting if it means the likes of Svanthorsson and Gardner could return to boost Town's attacking threat.

UTM