Cod Almighty | Diary

Spaceballs

1 September 2026

The view from this bank holiday weekend is that we're still not ready. Our early confidence in the defence took a hit with two very poor goals conceded. That first, especially, was a reminder we're not the complete package yet - and we can't blame an otherwise poor officiating team as Sweeney was playing Davies on.

Fleetwood were a poor man's Bromley and while the richer version was taking seven at Hillsborough, the Fishermen were falling and flopping across our decks, fish-mouthing their cries and waving their tails at a referee happy to give them what they wanted. Bearded hulks of men, Monty Python mermaids, naughty boys excited by a nanny too concerned with upsetting his charges to deliver proper discipline.

But let's look in the mirror. Yes, they could've had a couple of red cards, but the way we started the game was very poor. The old big-lads-in-coached-formations remains our Kryptonite. Take an age to break them down, get a goal then retreat to allow them their master plan: pile on pressure, get goal, sit back, look big, fall over. Repeat.

We look a team not ready to commit to a style. Are we playing through in carefully structured attacks or are we kicking long to a Cook-Green combo that is yet to spark this season? Or a mix of the two? If so, we're not getting enough support for Cook or Green when they manage to get their heads to it.

Too much coaching or not enough? Can't answer that after three games. And let's not forget that they are three unbeaten games. What would Salford give to have five points on the board already? But we look slow and disjointed in attack. Doyle is more than willing to get forward as we saw with his goal, but is he able to get forward enough? Do we need to keep Sweeney back from his forays to the edge of the box to allow Doyle more room to attack?

The missing ingredient is Kabia and his darting runs into the middle from the wide position. No point trying to recreate that as it's not Vernam's game and Amaluzor is a sentry patrolling that right flank rather than attacking it. Finch may be the answer in the months to come but right now he's undercooked. Morgan is the one. Will he be ready to start soon? Perhaps even tonight? Let him tire them out and get Cook on for the last 15 minutes to grind their bones for our bread.

And then Super Clive made his rounds and gave the Pontoon some extra special attention. Johnny Oster was with him, still baby-faced but now middle-aged comb-overed. This continued nostalgia, along with higher expectations and that dreadful start, tempered the atmosphere. A better second half and fans' eyes still gleaming from a glimpse of the pistol-fingered special one, however, meant that this was nothing like as glum as your View from the Weekend Diary's first few paragraphs have suggested.

Mr Sunshine, Géza Dávid Turi, the default man-of-the-match winner was joyous again on Saturday as he continues his full Pirlo morph. The fitter, stronger, cleverer, through-baller is our Jamestown poster boy and we love him. Is a contract extension likely or even possible? Artell assures us there has been no interest in any of our players and that he and GDT's agent are breakfast buddies. If true, this is the time to get him tied down.

It's all about contracts today. Deadline day on a fixture day is all very FC26. We didn't think it happened in the real world. Artell reminds it does and shares an anecdote from his time at Crewe. Anyway, he says, it doesn't matter what happens today; all outcomes are opportunities for growth. We have all grown. We are all better. We all rightly expect more. He may be a bag of contradictions in that he's a dour-sounding cheery chappy but he's our dour-sounding cheery chappy

At the time of writing, there's no news except that Balagizi is just training with us to regain fitness after an injury. Artell has, however, made it clear that there is business to be done, so I guess we'll all have one eye on the game and the other on #GTFC updates. At least one more forward, another central midfielder and new contracts for Turi and Kacurri, please.

Accrington tonight. They've got one point and only two wins in the last 20 games. Their players are not household names, with only the young Welsh forward Charlie Caton standing out because he has two goals already this season. So, while tonight will be seen as another steep step towards readiness, we should have enough, and even if long-serving boss John Doolan gets a bounce before he faces the door, it surely won't be us to be his space hopper.