Cod Almighty | Diary

Let's have a bit of cracky

7 November 2025

Yesterday's diary did an excellent job of presenting some of the feelings around our FA Cup draw against Wealdstone, but your A46 Diary will linger on the news just a little longer. I really wanted this tie. A chance to get revenge for last year, a chance to make a direct comparison with last year's team and get a clear measure of progress, a good chance to be in the hat for the third-round draw, a chance to be bloody-minded and lay some ghosts to rest and, best of all, a chance to relish in that best of footballing feelings: ha ha, you got Grimsby!

It's not just self-deprecation of a local lad from little old Grimsby, this is the best example of the worst draw ever, well, ever. I could almost feel sorry for those sad Stoners. We can remember the excitement of getting into the second round, the third, really, after that dreaded qualifier against the true minnows of the competition. Who's in League One? Let's have a Sheffield, a Bolton, a Charlton. What about the minnows who slipped through? Let's have a policemen's XI, a gaggle of goose farmers, an army of armed forces, a pile of pitmen, and get to the third round.

And we'd get Derby or Fleetwood.

Now, draw fatigue hits again as after all those hopes and dreams and wishes Wealdstone get fishes. Again! Twice in a row! Ha ha! Unlucky! It would only be better if it happened to bottom-of-the-table Wolves (back in the 90s they hated us, derailing, as we did so often, their promotion push from the 'hellish' landscape of the second division). Southampton would've been hilarious given their current form and Lincoln let us down by losing. So Wealdstone was the best draw; it's Wealdstone all the way!

Yes, I know Wolves were of course impossible this time around, but I do enjoy a little dig at the golden retrievers of mediocrity. Let's save the maudlin men of Molineaux for the third round.

Barrow tomorrow, a place where we don't do well, winning just once there this century, back in 2021. Their ground is a delightful, higgledy-piggledy hotchpotch of standing and seating and office windows. Charming is almost certainly the word, so we might have to enjoy the place more than the game. Or this hoodoo-breaking team will deliver a point(s)-winning performance and we'll be doubly happy.

They haven't lost for a long time but get a lot of draws. Goals are something they struggle to score but don't struggle too much to keep out; they've scored only 13 and let in only 15, fewer than us in both counts. There but for the grace of god, etc.

Artell has made the usual noises about how much we'll have to be on our game and how Barrow are in form, how they have their way and we have our way, and identities clash and players and fans know what to expect. Tomorrow, we can expect to see a lot of the ball and face a counter-attacking team, so there'll be a full focus on our full-backs.

Sweeney's shoulder injury means it'll be Rogers and Staunton in the spotlight, the former attracting a lot of needling criticism, the latter impressing in his cameos and, I assume, champing at the bit to get a few starts in a row. Potential for exposure is perhaps higher, so Lavelle and McJannet will need to be on their game and McEachran at his imperious best. An all-action display from Green and more than just a cameo for Rose would be great as well. Attacking options may be boosted by the Gilsenan (a definite article of a player if ever we had one), Artell assuring us that the Blackburn Messi is ready for 60 minutes of full-contact football. Exciting. So, we'll simply outscore them and win 4-2. That'll do!