Cod Almighty | Diary

I'm not normally soppy but I think I've fallen back in love with my club

5 July 2022

With all the awful things in the world, just generally let alone this week, I was thinking about how important football is to many of us. The retweet of Retro diary talking about "why do people get so upset about football?" was very timely. Is it inappropriate to be worrying about who the next signing will be? Are we just a little too privileged or comfortable if we can obsess about capacity and season ticket numbers? I would argue definitely not, no. It doesn't mean we don't worry about the world or the state of this country. It doesn't mean we don't care.

Football is everything that Retro said and more. When times are tough we can still go to football and for that 90 minutes we're in the moment, living the tension, anguish and moments of joy of what is playing out in front of us. I sometimes wonder if all the negative nellies only have this once-a-fortnight opportunity to moan out loud and the rest of the time they are just meek and subservient to boss, partner, the world? Okay, probably not but I'm sure they feel better for it.

I remember in detail the matches I attended with my terminally ill husband. I couldn't tell you who we played without looking it up but I remember the feeling of doing something "normal". That life as we knew it was falling apart but we could still hang on to the remnants of what we had and enjoy the moment. Football gives us that.

It's why areas like the fanzone are so important. I've only managed to go in once but I felt it was somewhere you could walk into on your own and not be alone. A nod, a smile and a quick hello and the world is a better place. It is so important for many who go to football alone and spend much of their week equally alone. The atmosphere wasn't what I had expected. It didn't feel like some of the boisterous away pubs before a game, but maybe that would be different on another day or time. It's a pity we don't have the space to do more.

After a game we have to go back to whatever we were dealing with beforehand and we carry the good times with us alongside the day to day. The negatives I leave behind more easily. I freely admit I haven't come down from the play-off games yet. Anyone lucky enough to have been at any of those matches, or to have been watching on television, will keep those games with them for life. Little moments of joy we can look back on and smile.

That's why I'm so happy with what is happening at Town, the direction the club is being taken and the way fans have got behind the new owners. We're not a bad bunch, are we?

I promise to be more on topic next week. Meanwhile I'm off to see if there are any 'secret' photos of pre-season training.

UTM!