Cod Almighty | Diary

We're just not that into you

12 January 2026

Miss Guest Diary writes: Everything about Saturday's game conspired to make it feel surreal. Any hope of getting back into the old routine with the first Saturday game at Blundell Park for four weeks was scuppered by the kick-off time being moved to 5.45pm. Having time to lunch at home and watch a game on TV before we set out, then driving over The Wolds mid-afternoon felt weird.

We stuck to our normal routine for an 'evening' kick-off by meeting the usual crew in Ocean’s Fish Bar. But that felt weird too: the place was surprisingly full with people who were obviously not going to the football and had me speculating why they would be eating fish and chips at 4 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. One thing we did all agree on was that Palace's loss to Macclesfield meant that, whatever the outcome of our game, we would be well below the media radar.

At the ground I continued to feel discombobulated when my usual seat neighbour – a rather large chap from Yorkshire who spends much of every game looking at scores on his phone – was replaced by a very excitable little girl who, to her credit, seemed more focused on the game than the seat's usual occupant is.

The game itself was the usual curate's egg: some decent performances from our team, some not so good; some players obviously giving their all, others not so much; plenty of chances created, some defensive weaknesses exposed. So far, so normal. The difference was that, even though Weston-Super-Mare came from behind twice to make it 2-2, and the scores remained level going into the last five minutes, I never, ever felt that Town weren't going to win. That's a feeling I rarely experience until we have at least a 3-goal cushion.

Why was that? Maybe it was that, no matter how often you tell yourself that anything can happen in a cup game, that it's not particularly unusual for lower-ranked teams to win (we did it ourself in our glorious cup run three years ago), something inside won't let you believe it's possible until it actually happens. Watching the Macclesfield game earlier, it was curious to see shots of some Palace fans in the crowd looking cheerful when they were losing with only a couple of minutes to go, as if they simply couldn't believe that their team, the cup holders, could be knocked out by non-League opposition.

The 571 Weston-Super-Mare fans in the Osmond probably had more hope than belief but they sang and chanted all afternoon in support of their team. Something which over 4,000 Town fans didn't bother with much – maybe because we felt that Town should have been walking all over the opposition and we weren't going to make a noise until our players 'deserved' it. It has been noticeable in recent seasons – a sort of chicken-and-egg situation – that we don't rouse ourselves until something exciting happens, or until the ref makes a blunder.

Among the taunts of the opposition fans were the standard "Is this a library?" and "Shall we sing a song for you?" I saw a Tweet from Danny Baker about this type chanting which amused me: "Away fans need to learn that singing "Is this a library?" or "Shall we sing a song for you?" only ever means the home supporters are not that excited about playing you. You are the dull visitors. Your team is like sitting through the undercard at boxing." For me, this neatly sums up the (lack of) atmosphere on Saturday.

Now we await the draw for the fourth round. Maybe we'll get a big club away from home, and have a chance to sing a song for them.

UTM