Cod Almighty | Diary

You can't say anything these days

8 May 2025

Hello there! Welcome to your daily dose of increasingly desperate diarying, where nonsense will gradually replace substance to help wend our merry way through an empty summer of match action. The all filler no thriller season has kicked in. It’s very much a mantra your West Yorkshire Diary was born to write for. Everyone loves vanilla, right?

So then, football has pulled the shutters down on another topsy-turvy season, where topsy almost prevailed despite some very turvy moments. It’s a saturated world out there, dripping with thoughts and opinions, and I’m not sure I have anything original or different to add.

Players will come and go, like passing ships in the night (not like the Solonge or the Stela Immaculate, though). We’ll let Jamestown do its thing, and we’ll presume they’re all upgrades until performances and results tell us otherwise. That’s how it works.

It feels as though the club has finally stopped lurching from one poor, uninformed decision to another, now that we’ve decided not to base our future on the flimsy concept of football fortune. With sensible people applying sensibilities to this crazy venture, my approach to Town’s summer activities is likely to mirror my approach to Town’s final game of the season just gone, which was to let those who know what they’re doing do what they need to do and simply go with the flow. What other way is there, really?

Season ticket sales figures, fixture release day, new signings and friendlies, maybe an excursion beyond the wilds of Winterton? We’ve all that to come. Who remembers our pre-season trip to Northern Ireland in the mid-90s? There were fireworks in Bangor and ulcers on Steve Livingstone’s eyes, apparently.

How explosive can a 1-0 win in a sleepy harbour city be, really? It's hard to believe ulcers can grow on eyes. What’s even harder to believe is that Steve Livingstone was ever 24 years old. What would we give for League Two Livvo now, eh? I wonder if Jamestown provides data on elbows.

Enjoy the peace and tranquillity — but if you really want to pursue some Town-related fun, why not play Fishy Bingo? Mark your cards whenever you see such phrases as ‘business done early’, ‘legs have gone’, ‘could do a job at our level’, ‘trust the process’ and the classic ‘I’m starting to worry at the lack of signings’. Let the nesbitry begin.

UTM!