Cod Almighty | Diary

Physically and mentally wet

26 March 2026

Ever since Kieran Green scored against Harrogate from inside his own half, my eight-year-old son has been familiar with the name. I’m not sure my son has a favourite player, but Greeny is certainly one of the first names that comes to his mind when I inform him Town have just scored and I ask him to guess who scored it.

While watching the highlights of Town’s victory over Barrow, in which of course Green scored two, he caught a better glimpse of the man via a zoomed-in shot. ‘Oh. He doesn’t look like I thought he would.’ Yes, son. Not all heroes wear capes — or a mullet, or one of those man buns that are shaved underneath. No go-faster stripes etched into his eyebrows, either, or any of that funny stuff. Not sure the tiny shin pads and rolled-down socks fit the image Kieran’s curated by the way he plays the game, but if that’s what helps him score 11 goals from midfield then I can get on board with it.

We bought the EFL sticker book before Christmas and only now have we been completing team pages. The first two we completed were, rather coincidentally, Barrow and Harrogate — one we’ve just played, the other is next. Both in the bottom two, and both may not be able to feature in next season’s EFL sticker book if their fortunes don’t change. A handsome win against Harrogate would be delightful, but they seem to have a habit of making life hard for us. Let’s hope it’s not so hard that it reduces us to shooting from inside our own half. If so, well, at least we have the man for it.

If anyone has any swaps, by the way, please get in touch. My son’s friends all support Manchester City. Yes, they’re simple folk. They don’t appreciate the vast emotional nuances that come with following football the further down the leagues you go. Living just a few miles east of Leeds, I don’t begrudge them supporting Leeds United.

All this talk of Harrogate and we’re not even playing them for another eight days! What on earth are we meant to do between now and then? Get excited by some dreary England friendlies? Pretend we’re half Welsh or Irish to add some interest to their qualification matches?

News coming out of BP is, as you would imagine, thin on the ground as we navigate this weird late-March void. No fallouts with the local media. No poorly judged late-night statements from the billiards room. No collaborations with convicted fraudsters. Just a bunch of teams — men’s, women’s, youth’s — doing well, building steadily, improving year on year. An old ground being shown some love. A community being invited, included and involved.

We’ve had a marvellous March, Oldham aside, scoring lots of goals, winning big points and muscling our way back into play-off contention. A lot of this squad is contracted for next season, too. Those that haven’t yet committed to us should look at how things are going for those who left us last summer. I have no evidence for it, instead I’m happy to operate on gut instinct that has been informed by years of what systemic mismanagement in GTFC looks like, but we are in very good shape — not just on the pitch but right through the backbone of the club. If you’re a lower league footballer, I’d say these types of employers are hard to find.

We all love three points on a Saturday, or on any day we play, and we all love winning. We might yet enjoy a dramatic promotion via the play-offs. But whatever happens from here, I’m okay with it. That’s not a lack of an ambition, but an appreciation of a football club that is doing the right things — even when no one is looking.

This is the sort of club I want my eight-year-old to inherit, no matter what division we are in. UTM!